Cellar Favorite: 1982 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | JUNE 29, 2026

What a treat it is to taste Giuseppe Rinaldi’s 1982 Barolo from a perfect bottle. It’s a wine that opens a door into another era in Barolo, akin to watching a classic film in black and white or listening to a musical recording before the advent of highly technical studios, much less purely digital music.

Scents of sweet pipe tobacco, dried flowers, mint, orange peel, melted road tar, kirsch and macerated cherry are old-school Barolo all the way. The 1982 is medium in body, beautifully delineated and still quite vibrant for its age. Many wines from this era are penalized by what were often less than ideal cellar conditions, but there are no such issues here. The purity of this wine is just remarkable. At the time, Battista Rinaldi made a single Barolo, a blend from all the family’s sites. The 1982 has aged beautifully. In fact, it is in outstanding shape for a vintage in which most wines are now in decline. There is no upside in cellaring bottles further. Readers who can find the 1982 are in for a real treat. Not only is the wine superb, it is also a glorious monument to a long-gone era in Piedmont. 97/2026-2036.

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