Amarone and Aglianico are worthy contenders, and Nerello Mascalese from Etna is rising as a challenger, but for now, the heavyweight title bout in Italian wine comes down to Barolo and Brunello di Montalcino. It is fascinating to square off these two great wines against one another, largely because their virtues are so different even though—in overall terms—they are more evenly matched than the two best wines of any other country (including Bordeaux and Burgundy). I haven’t conducted a blind taste-off between Barolo and Brunello for years, and never on Zoom, which lends itself especially well to blind tasting, voting, and good-natured arguing over the results. I’ll set up 6 pairs—each of them a fair fight—and we’ll consider some older and younger examples as well as some of the most famous wines from the two appellations to assure that they are represented by top contestants.

Wine samples available for pickup by appointment on Friday, December 16 between 12pm – 5pm.

Additional Information

*If this event is sold out please email michael@franzwine.com to be added to the waitlist. Due to the popularity of Michael’s classes we will be unable to accept requests for cancellation/rescheduling within 5 days of the class date. Outside of the 5 day period, our normal cancellation/rescheduling policy applies.

*If you are registering for more than one person, please be sure to include the other participants’ email address(es) when registering if they will be viewing the class from a different location/device.

*Please make a note of the wine sample pickup date mentioned above, as it will not appear on your registration confirmation.

*We cannot accommodate requests for wine sample pickups in advance of the date/times mentioned above. 

Zoom invitations will be emailed the day of class.