During a short stay in the Piemonte (Piedmont) wine region I met proponents of opposite sides of the ongoing debate over the use of small oak barrels for making Barolo, Barbaresco and the region’s other red wines. It’s a bit hard to believe that this philosophical battle continues after a generation, but it only shows how passionate Piemontese winemakers and connoisseurs are about the subject.

As I blogged before, I spent half a day with Pietro Ratti whose father, Renato Ratti, is one of the fathers of modern-day Barolo wines. He played a big role in modernizing the winemaking process here, transforming what were often brown, lean, aromatic but very tannic and often tired-tasting traditional Barolos into more supple, fresh, but still-structured and aromatic modern Barolos. And the French-oak barrique (60-gallon barrel) was one of his important tools.

I ran into a proponent of the other side, the traditionalists who believe barriques are abhorrent for Barolo, quite accidentally at Al Vecchio Tre Stelle in Barbaresco, where I dined in style one night and stayed overnight upstairs. In the breakfast room the next morning I struck up a conversation with John Wheaver, a semi-retired English engineer who has been coming to Barolo for years.

Turns out his passion in life is to drink and promote the non-barrique wines of Barolo, and to make no money doing it. He maintains a dot-org on the subject. Here he has assembled a roster of Barolo producers who do not use small barrels, but use large oak casks instead. This list he calls Vino da Uva (wine from grapes) in a cheeky reference to his belief that making wine, or at least Barolo, in barriques is making it from oak and not from grapes.

Sixty-two producers populate the main list, and he adds six others who make some but not all of their wine sans barrique. It’s a valuable tool for people who want to understand the differences in Barolo wine styles, but can’t get this information from blind tasting notes.

Wheaver’s list of barrique-banning Barolos and Barbarescos includes several of my old favorites that are often well reviewed by Wine Enthusiast, too, including Aldo Conterno, Marcarini, Bruno Giacosa and the affordable cooperative, Produttori del Barbaresco.

I admire critics, whether professional or amateur, who take a firm stand on an issue like this and stick with it. It gives them a secure position from which to fight. I am not that dogmatic, however. I tend to see multiple sides to an argument.

In this case, yeah, I like a lot of the wines he lists, but I also like many of those that he considers vino da quercia (wine from oak). Ratti is a great example. Ratti wines have deep colors, rather lush textures, definitely a spiciness from oak. They’re delicious and compelling, but they don’t taste like Bordeaux or Super-Tuscans. To me they still have that unique regional aroma that is floral and tea-like, with vivid sour-cherry flavors, fine tannins and long, gripping finishes.

I also visited other cellars in the region, including Pio Cesare and G.D. Vajra, on this trip. Cesare uses more barriques, Vajra more traditional large oak oval casks. Their styles of Barolo are quite different. Cesare is new world in style, with cinnamon-cedar spiciness, generous ripe fruit flavors and a relatively soft texture.

I found two of the Vajra Barolos, made in a thoroughly modern and spotlessly kept cellar, to be full of the traditional virtues of the region. Their Barolo Bricco del Viole 2003 was not too dark in color, had fantastic light aromas of clove and tea, lean and focused cherry flavors, and a clean and slightly biting texture.

The contrasting styles of wines, both very appealing in different ways, led me to believe that considerations besides cooperage are more important in choosing which Barolo to buy. I think it’s because the character of the Barolo and Barbaresco grape variety, Nebbiolo, is so distinctive that its personality comes through despite varying winemaking methods.

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