Barolo auction, 51 lots sold for more than 30.000 euros all for the non-profit 1Caffè

Fifty-one lots, 120 bottles and more than 30.000 euros collected at the Barolo auction, held a few days ago at the Barolo Castle in the heart of the Langhe of wine, confirmed it was a success “for humanity”. The proceeds from the sale will go to finance the many projects sustained by the non-profit organization 1Caffè, which was founded by the actor, Luca Argentero. The main players of the day were wine lovers in connection with the “Enoteca Bar Implicito” in Tokyo, which bought 26 lots, including the top piece, the “Deditus” lot, all wines of “class 1999”, including bottles of Azelia, Cordero di Montezemolo, Franco Martinetti, Michele Chiarlo, Poderi Gianni Gagliardo, Poderi Luigi Einaudi, Prunotto and Vietti, sold for 2.000 euros. There were a total of 35 wine companies represented, some of which no longer exist (for example the lot of Franco Fiorina, three bottles from 1970, 1971 and 1974, sold for 500 euros), 29 vintages (the oldest was a wine dated 1947, the most recent 2010).
Speaking of old vintages, the wines from the Forties and Fifties narrate a very different and distant Barolo, like the three bottles by Giacomo Borgogno dated 1947 that sold for 470 euros in Tokyo, or the mixed lot including Fontanafredda, Barolo 1959, together with Prunotto, Barolo Riserva 1967, and Marchesi di Barolo 1974: the trio sold for 520 euros. Then came the turning point with the Sixties, superbly narrated by Renato Ratti 1967, a highly appreciated fifty year old wine, sold at 410 euros, and the same vintage for 4 bottles of Poderi Oddero that sold for 600 euros. More recent vintages also did well, such as the traditional Barolo by Bartolo Masicarello 1996, whose author’s label depicting ladybugs sold for 360 euros.
Why all this attention for Barolo? “It is the best wine in the world”, said Gianni Gagliardo, who chairs the group of producers that promotes the Auction, and reconfirmed the appointment, “in 2020, again in May, and always in Barolo”. Shigeru Hayashi, president of Soloitalia - Japan, and one of the leading international experts on Italian cuisine, emphasized instead that “Barolo is longevity: in Japan it is highly appreciated for its reliability and the extraordinary competence of its producers”.