The vintage benefited from a cold and wet winter, which replenished the water reservoirs and prevented the vines from being put under too much stress by the drought that set in during the summer - which was to continue into 2023. A weather pattern without excessive temperature peaks and cool nights at the end of the ripening period meant that grapes could be harvested with perfect ripeness. The resulting wines combine lush, juicy fruit and ripe, noble tannins with exceptional precision and freshness - a situation that one always wishes for, but which very rarely occurs.

This year not only eclipses the very good but much more inconsistent 2020 vintage, its noblesse and precision make it even more impressive than the great 2019. As is so often the case, slight weaknesses only became apparent where the grapes were a little too ripe. Only a few regions and varieties produce wines that can still have an ideal balance at 15 per cent or more alcohol by volume. Despite its natural vigour and powerful structure, Barolo usually reaches its limits here too, even in years with such perfect conditions.

We have tasted almost 300 Barolo wines in recent months, around half of them from 2021, another third from the 2020 vintage, plus a whole series of older examples, including many Riserve. We present the best results here, sorted by vintage. We have included links to all the results and the producers at the end of each list. Among the older wines are some that we have retrieved from our wine archive for re-tasting, but which were not yet photographed at the time. They therefore appear without a photo of the bottle.