The Love of Giovanni and Giuliano Corino: the Giachini vineyard

This is the moderately sloped Giachini vineyard of La Morra in the Barolo zone of Piemonte.  It is a chilly January morning, about 9am.  In the distance, down the hill a bit, you can see a figure, diligently and methodically performing some of the winter pruning needed.  His name is Giovanni Corino, and he planted this parcel in 1953, farming it for the last 58 years.  He is 78 years old.  His family laughs, “He wouldn’t know what to do with himself, he’s been doing this so long.”  Clearly, this place is a part of him, and he a part of it.
After years as sharecroppers, the family began domaine bottling in the mid-eighties, among the modernist renaissance producers led by their dear friend and neighbor, Elio Altare.  The introduction of the use of french barrique, rotory temperature controlled fermenters, severely controlled yields per plant, with a Burgundian finesse driven aesthetic model marked the stylistic changes of these ‘modernists’.  The two sons of the family, Renato and Giuliano, ran the estate togetether until 2005, when they agreed to separate the company.  The younger son, Giuliano, now runs the original estate and historic label alongside his wife, Stefania.
I meet with both Giuliano and Stefania on a chilly January morning.  We walk through the range of wines that have arrived stateside: their purity and intensity are striking, at every level.  I openly confess that their pricing is amazingly inexpensive;  these folks overdeliver in a way that the full ‘three-tier’ system never reflected: all of the intermediaries combined earned more on their wine than they did!!  They joke with me, “OK then.  Next vintage, a 10% price increase!”.  With the flagship Giachini wines, I am rendered speechless.  They are fantastically complete wines, offering both a captivating immediate sex appeal, and the savory transparency and thrust of great Nebbiolo; Burgundian finesse and purity does indeed come to mind.  We share A bottle of the 1990 Giachini over lunch with roasted goat, affirming the longevity and nobility of this small parcel in La Morra: Giachini fruit, still singing bright, with heart achingly beautiful aromas of roses, savory earth, herbs and spices, leather.  In the mouth, the wine is perfectly balanced, fresh and bright, the kind of harmony that forces you to listen, awestruck as the flavors sail on and on and on…….Neighbor Elio Altare confesses after savoring some of this 1990: “You do even better work than I do”.  Ever humble and demure in his manner, Giuliano shrugs off such flattery, but does not reject Elio’s proposition……
The Giachini Barolo is also a perennial favorite of the most influential American critics as well.  Both Steven Tanzer and Antonio Galloni consistently recognize the Corino Giachini among the finest values in cru Barolo, scoring the wine 93 and 94 points virtually every single year.  Here’s the list of goodies that i’ve brought in, all at the best prices ON EARTH according to Wine-Searcher Pro, with some of their reviews: