Barolo Boys challenged king of wines with modern methods
A look at how a 1980s group of producers modernised Barolo winemaking. Known as the Barolo Boys, they introduced green harvesting and new oak barrels to make the traditionally tannic wine more approachable, sparking significant debate in Italian wine history.
A group of producers in the Barolo region of Italy challenged the traditional methods of making the wine often called "the king of wines, and the wine of kings." In the 1980s, these up-and-coming vintners argued that the famously tannic and unapproachable wine could be made friendlier while retaining its status.
Alice Wong, a certified wine educator based in Hong Kong, explained the movement in a column for The Standard. She noted that Barolo was traditionally so tannic that it was deemed unapproachable in its early years. To make it palatable, drinkers had to wait for years while the wine's polyphenol biomolecules polymerised.
Wong wrote that the group, which included producers such as Elio Altare, Luciano Sandrone and Chiara Boschis, introduced changes to the winemaking process. These included green harvesting, the use of new oak barrels and shorter maceration. The collective became known as the Barolo Boys, despite Chiara Boschis being female.
The Barolo Boys' movement stirred up some of the most significant discords in the history of Italian wines, according to Wong. She said their actions called for a reconsideration of what had been an ultraconventional, untouchable subject in Italian winemaking.
Wong compared the movement's impact to that of the Super Tuscans, another group of Italian winemakers who broke with tradition. She said the Barolo Boys reproduced a similar phenomenon, though stopped short of saying it was identical.
The column, titled "Long live the kings (part I)", was published on 23 October 2026. It is the first instalment of a series on the wine.
