Barolo Tre Tine

Tre Tine was born of a labelling rule. Before 2010 the house bottled two Barolos, each a marriage of two crus: Brunate-Le Coste and Cannubi San Lorenzo-Ravera. When the labelling rules changed with the 2010 vintage, a label could no longer carry two vineyard names. Rinaldi answered by bottling Brunate on its own and folding the other parcels into one wine he called Tre Tine, "three vats".

The three lots are Ravera, Cannubi San Lorenzo and Le Coste. Ravera carries the largest share. Antonio Galloni put the split at about 60 percent Ravera with 20 percent each of the other two, and other accounts give different proportions from vintage to vintage, so read any single figure as approximate.

The cellar works the old way. Decanter describes each parcel being made and aged on its own, and merchant accounts of the house.s Barolos fill in the rest: about a month in old oak tini with natural yeasts and no temperature control, then about three and a half years in old botti. The lots are put together shortly before bottling, which is when the three vats become one wine.

The 2019 is the second harvest after Beppe's death in September 2018, made by his daughters: Marta, an enologist who joined in 2008, and Carlotta, an agronomist who joined in 2012. The Consorzio's harvest report describes a winter that lingered into February, a wet April, two heat waves (one at the turn of June and July, another at the end of July) and a Nebbiolo harvest that began in the second half of October. The crop was a little smaller than 2018's, and the Consorzio's technical office called the quality of the grapes well above average.