Produttori di Barbaresco: All the Crus of 2016

The Produttori di Barbaresco cooperative may very well be the world’s best wine cooperative. The quality level of wines it produces every year is often superior not just to those of many other Barbaresco producers, but to many of those of Barolo, the rest of Italy, and the world too. Even better, the Produttori has an amazing track record for goodness in the glass: for example, the coop’s old vintages from the 1960s and 1970s are still splendid today (clearly, provided they were kept in a good cellar).  You might go as far to say that the wines are so good the Produttori di Barbaresco is everyone’s second favourite wine producer (when it isn’t their favourite, period): everyone has a second favourite colour, a second favourite rock band, a second favourite football or baseball team and so forth. You know, like the “other” team you root for when the one you normally pine for has been unceremoniously kicked out of the playoffs (I’m a long-suffering Toronto Maple Leafs fan, so trust me, I’m an expert on the subject of getting kicked out of round one of the playoffs, and before the recent ??? good times, in not even making the playoffs altogether for one long stretch after another).

An historically relevant cooperative