READY DRINKING - 2008 Barolo, Riserva Runcot,
Elio Grasso

2008 Barolo, Riserva Runcot, Elio Grasso - £620 per 6 bottle case in bond

     12 cases available

Request To Buy

Gianluca Grasso’s Barolo Runcot is causing a stir in recent vintages and our offer of the 2016 sold out in record time, not that the 2015 or 2013 hung around! This offer affords you an opportunity to purchase a mature example at the best available price in the UK. The stock is already with us in our cellars at LCB Eton Park and is therefore available for immediate despatch.
 
Since taking over from his father Elio, Gianluca has worked tirelessly to bring about added refinement and consistency in the wines of Elio Grasso. I have been visiting the Grassos since the 2001 vintage and have known their wines from bottle since the 1996 vintage. In the last decade they have lifted the bar hugely. As with a number of other estates, they have benefited from an unprecedented run of high-quality vintages, dictated first and foremost by the weather during the growing season, but equally Gianluca’s deft hand in winemaking has brought about greater purity and nuance in the estate’s wines. Gianluca, and his father Elio, have always stressed that wine is made in the vineyard. Gianluca is obsessive about determining the perfect moment to harvest and appreciates sometimes you have to risk something to gain something if you want to allow Nebbiolo a longer hang-time than might be the case in certain vintages.

Runcot has always been Gianluca’s personal project. It comes from a south-facing sloping vineyard at 300-350 metres in altitude with a clayey, limestone base. The vines are on average 30 years old.  Unusually for Grasso, the wine is aged exclusively in French oak barriques. Critics were initially a little sceptical about the ageing; you can see pick that up in Galloni’s note from a decade ago. Given his comments on the recently released 2016, it seems he has come around to Gianluca’s way of thinking!
 
I have included the scores for all vintages since 2008 – it is worth noting that Runcot is not made in every vintage. I have also shown where the UK market starts for each vintage.

2020                    (95-98)                  not yet released
2019                     97                          not yet released             
2016                     100                        £1070 per 6
2015                     96                          £750 per 6
2013                     97+                        £1200 per 6
2010                     96+                        £725 per 6
2008                     95+                        £620 per 6

Here is Antonio Galloni’s full note, written in January 2014. He hasn’t retasted or rescored the wine since. I tasted late last year and would suggest that the wine has matured brilliantly – now a decade on since Galloni tasted, it has gained considerable complexity. The richness and dark fruits that it showed in its youth remain, but those balsamic notes have developed as well as notes of leather, autumnal leaf and more evident spice. This was always such an impressive wine; the time in barrique had really brought out the elegance and rounded the tannins. Today it is both a wine of undeniable richness but also superb elegance. Galloni used the plus sign to suggest the 2008 had the potential to improve – I think he was right. And relative to the other vintages of Runcot, which now trade for considerably more, this is a bargain.