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Robinsons Land board clears P15-B fixed-rate bonds

ROBINSONS Land Corp. (RLC) has gained approval from its board of directors to issue up to P15-billion fixed-rate bonds.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange Tuesday, the Gokongwei-led property developer said its board of directors had given the nod for the company to issue peso-denominated bonds.

The issuance will have an aggregate principal amount of P10 billion with an over-subscription option of up to P5 billion.

RLC did not give further details as these are yet to be finalized.

“(The issuance is) subject to the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the rating process of the Philippine Rating Services Corporation,” it said. “Further details on the offer will be made available to the public once finalized.”

RLC handles the real estate and hotel business of its parent firm JG Summit Holdings, Inc. It reported a 6% increase in net income last year to P8.69 billion, driven by a P1.02-billion jump in revenues to P30.58 billion.

Shares in RLC at the stock exchange gained 95 centavos or 4.75% to close P20.95 apiece yesterday. — Denise A. Valdez

Mask-wearers can be ID’d, China facial recognition firm says

BEIJING — A Chinese company says it has developed the country’s first facial recognition technology that can identify people when they are wearing a mask, as most are these days because of the coronavirus, and help in the fight against the disease.

China employs some of the world’s most sophisticated systems of electronic surveillance, including facial recognition.

But the coronavirus, which emerged in Hubei province late last year, has resulted in almost everyone wearing a surgical mask outdoors in the hope of warding off the virus — posing a particular problem for surveillance.

Now Hanwang Technology Ltd., which also goes by the English name Hanvon, said it has come up technology that can successfully recognize people even when they are wearing masks.

“If connected to a temperature sensor, it can measure body temperature while identifying the person’s name, and then the system would process the result, say, if it detects a temperature over 38 degrees,” Hanwang Vice President Huang Lei told Reuters in an interview.

The Beijing-based firm said a team of 20 staff used core technology developed over the past 10 years, a sample database of about 6 million unmasked faces and a much smaller database of masked faces, to develop the technology,

The team began work on the system in January, as the coronavirus outbreak gathered pace, and began rolling it out to the market after just a month.

It sells two main types of products that use the technology. One performs “single channel” recognition that is best used at, for example, entrances to office buildings.

The other, more powerful, product is a “multi-channel” recognition system that uses “multiple surveillance cameras.”

It can identify everyone in a crowd of up to 30 people “within a second,” Huang says.

“When wearing a mask, the recognition rate can reach about 95%, which can ensure that most people can be identified,” Huang said, adding the success rate for people without mask is about 99.5%.

LOSING FACIAL INFORMATION
A big customer, not surprisingly, is the Ministry of Public Security, which runs the police.

Using Hanwang’s technology, the ministry can cross-reference images with its own database of names and other information and then identify and track people as they move about, Huang said.

“It can detect crime suspects, terrorists or make reports or warnings,” he said.

But the system struggles to identify people with both a mask and sunglasses, he said.

“In this situation, all of the key facial information is lost. In such cases recognition is tough,” Huang said.

The company has about 200 clients in Beijing using the technology, including the police, and expect scores more across 20 provinces to start installing it soon, Huang said.

It is not immediately clear how Chinese citizens are reacting to this new technology.

When it comes to other surveillance tools being used in the fight against the coronavirus, there has been some grumbling on social media but most people seem to be accepting extra intrusion, or even embracing it, as a means to deal with the health emergency.

Although domestic customers have been driving Hanwang’s business, Huang also said he expected more foreign interest, as the virus spreads around the world and more people wear face masks.

“It not only benefits Chinese people, but also, when the technology is applied globally, it can benefit the world,” he said. — Reuters

Reimagining Davao’s fruits for tourism promotion

DAVAO CITY — Durian-camote rolls. Mangosteen panacotta with pomelo bits. Marang puffs.

These are some of the “innovative dishes” that will be featured in a coffeetable book being conceptualized by the Davao Tourism Association (DATA) as part of its marketing campaign for a region known for its bounty of fresh fruits.

“I am so happy to help promote Davao tourism through these innovative dishes,” Chef Clinton Verdaguer Gregorio, who is now part of the Institute of International Culinary and Hospitality Entrepreneurship (IChef) in Davao City, said in an interview.

Mr. Gregorio’s more than two-decade career has brought him around the world, working in kitchens or teaching, including at The Tower Club in Makati City, The Peninsula Manila Hotel, the Holland America Line cruise company, Warwick International, and Warrington in Cheshire, England.

Despite his experience, he said he still gets nervous at every service, like during DATA’s One Culinary Night event which marked its 45th anniversary earlier this year, where new concoctions using local ingredients and traditional dishes were presented by the DATA Chefs’ Club. He was the only invited chef from the academe.

The main challenge for this project, he said, was keeping the distinct flavors of the fruits as he turned them into desserts.

“It’s a bit more challenging… When you taste it, it should be the taste of durian or mangosteen or pomelo to really identify Davao,” he said.

Then there’s the challenge of differing tastes, like for the strong-flavored durian.

“You get nervous because it is always open to criticism. Even though your dishes are perfect, but for some guests it’s not because we have different tastebuds. One of my mentors told me to always put a big question mark even though your dish is perfect because you cannot please everyone,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.

His camote-durian roll, for example, was conceived to give a hint and appreciation of durian flavor, especially for those who are not too keen on the fruit’s strong taste and smell.

His pastries, along with other dishes, will again be featured during the city’s hosting of MICE Con 2020 in October, the country’s biggest gathering for the

Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions sector.

“It is an honor and quite exciting to be part of the culinary chefs in Davao. We (IChef) are the only culinary school in Davao City that is being tapped,” he said. — Maya M. Padillo

Twitter debuts ‘manipulated media’ label on clip of Biden retweeted by Trump

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter Inc. has used its new “manipulated media” label for the first time on a video clip of US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that was retweeted by President Donald Trump.

The video, posted on Saturday by White House social media director Dan Scavino, showed Biden during a speech in Kansas City, Missouri, in which he said the words “Excuse me. We can only re-elect Donald Trump.”

Biden’s full sentence, which was cut off in the clip, was “Excuse me. We can only re-elect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here. It’s gotta be a positive campaign so join us.”

Twitter rolled out its new policy, which labels tweets with altered or synthetic media such as so-called deepfakes or more manually edited videos, on March 5.

The tag made its debut on Sunday afternoon, but Twitter said it failed to appear when people searched for the tweet or clicked into it, only when it was seen in timelines. A Twitter spokesman said the company was working on a fix for the glitch.

Scavino, in a subsequent tweet, said “the video was NOT manipulated” and Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to the president, wrote on Twitter: “The clip was accurate and was A CLIP of Biden’s embarrassing gaffe.”

Social media companies are under pressure to police misleading or false information on their platforms ahead of the US presidential election in November, in which Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders are vying to be the Democratic nominee to oust Republican President Trump.

The video, which had millions of views on Twitter, was also posted on Scavino’s Facebook page where it had about 1 million views.

The Biden campaign slammed Facebook Inc. for showing the video on its platforms without labels over the weekend.

A Facebook spokesman said on Monday the company’s third-party fact-checkers had now rated the video as “partly false.” — Reuters

Australian banks well capitalized to withstand virus spread’s disruption

A RESERVE Bank of Australia official said banks are well capitalized to deal with disruptions caused by the virus outbreak. — REUTERS

SYDNEY — Australian banks are well capitalized to withstand the disruption caused to financial markets from the coronavirus outbreak, a senior central banker said on Wednesday as the country’s banks met with the Treasurer.

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Deputy Governor Guy Debelle said the country’s lenders had boosted their finances before the recent disruption in wholesale funding markets and their deposit inflows were “robust” as well.

“They are resilient to a period of market disruption,” Mr. Debelle said in a speech in Sydney.

The comment comes amid fears Australia is on track for its first recession in nearly three decades. Regulators are worried the coronavirus epidemic, which has plunged major stock indexes into bear territory and disrupted money markets, could have a ripple effect across the financial system.

A sharp and rapid fall in stock markets and widening credit spreads would put indebted firms under severe pressure, in turn leading to potential defaults and a rise in bad loans for banks.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg did not immediately provide details of his meeting with the chief executives of 13 of the country’s biggest banks.

Shares in the Big Four banks — Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking Group — have dived between 15% and 22% since the beginning of February when the virus began spreading outside China. But regulators and the banks themselves are confident the sector is prepared for a shock after lenders bolstered their core tier-I capital ratios to a minimum 10.5% from January.

Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh said the country’s lenders were in “the best ever shape to face this challenge.”

Mr. Debelle said the RBA has not seen “any particular sign” of pressure in its daily market operations to date.

In addition, Mr. Debelle noted that while the spread between the bank bill swap rate — a benchmark used to price loans and other products — and the expected policy rate has risen in recent days, it remains low.

“Nothing at all like what occurred in GFC,” Mr. Debelle said, referring to the 2008 global financial crisis.

The coronavirus has spread rapidly in recent weeks, infecting more than 116,100 people worldwide and killing more than 4,000, according to a Reuters tally.

The RBA last week cut its benchmark rate to a record low 0.5%. Financial futures are pricing in another easing to 0.25% as soon as next month, another factor pressuring bank earnings and profit margins. — Reuters

Cathay projects ‘substantial’ loss as virus follows protests

CATHAY PACIFIC Airways Ltd. expects a “substantial loss” in the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus crimps travel demand, adding to the challenges facing a carrier that’s already been humbled by the political unrest in Hong Kong.

The forecast came as Cathay said its net income tumbled 28% to HK$1.69 billion ($218 million) in 2019, slightly better than the average estimate of six analysts tracked by Bloomberg. Profit in the traditionally stronger second half of the year was only HK$344 million as social unrest and US-China trade tension intensified, Hong Kong’s flagship airline said in a statement Wednesday.

“We were faced with an incredibly challenging environment to operate as the Hong Kong economy slipped into recession,” Chairman Patrick Healy said in the statement. The coronavirus outbreak has exacerbated Cathay’s troubles and put it on course for its first loss in two years. “Travel demand has dropped substantially,” Mr. Healy said.

The airline has slashed capacity to mainland China by 90% and reduced its entire international network by about 40% because of the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 120,000 people and killed more than 4,200 worldwide. Cathay, which is particularly exposed to the virus because close to half of its revenue comes from Hong Kong and mainland China, has also asked employees to take unpaid leave as it tries to weather the latest crisis.

Cathay shares rose 2.5% to HK$10.12 at 3:18 p.m. in Hong Kong. That trimmed their loss for this year to 12%.

Cathay said it is likely to continue cutting passenger capacity in May following reductions of about 30% in February and 65% for March and April in terms of available seat kilometers. It will also reduce flight frequencies. “It is difficult to predict when these conditions will improve,” the company said.

When the virus abates and demand recovers, Cathay could even stand to benefit as competitors collapse or have difficulty returning their services, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts James Teo and Chris Muckensturm. Cathay’s “dominance in Hong Kong was already strengthened by its acquisition of HK Express last year, which should serve it well as the city remains a key Asian financial and trade hub,” they wrote in a note.

Airlines globally have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, with the International Air Transport Association saying it could cost the industry as much as $113 billion in lost revenue this year. British airline Flybe collapsed last week as the epidemic ended prospects for a UK state-backed rescue, while carriers from United Airlines Holdings, Inc. and Singapore Airlines Ltd. to Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Qantas Airways Ltd. are slashing flights.

“The situation in 2020 will be much more severe than in 2019” said Luya You, a transport analyst at Bocom International.

Cathay warned about its results before the virus struck as Hong Kong protests led to lower bookings and passengers in the latter part of last year. In addition to the broad drop in tourist numbers, Chinese state-run companies told employees to avoid flying with the airline on business or personal trips after Cathay came under fire from Beijing because some of its workers took part in a general strike and demonstrations.

“Inbound traffic was hit hard, particularly on short-haul and Mainland China routes, while outbound traffic also decreased,” Mr. Healy said in Wednesday’s statement. “Demand for premium travel was weak and we became increasingly reliant on lower-yielding transit traffic.”

“We expect our passenger business to be under severe pressure this year and that our cargo business will continue to face headwinds,” Mr. Healy said.

Cathay said it will continue to bring in new aircraft this year and is maintaining its plan to take delivery of 70 new planes by 2024. Its new subsidiary HK Express reported a post-acquisition loss for 2019 against expectations for a small profit, while Air China Cargo suffered “a significant decline in results as trade tensions escalated.”

“They had a great first half last year and then all of a sudden with the protests the second half was really dismal,” Sobie Aviation analyst and consultant Brendan Sobie said in a Bloomberg Television interview Wednesday. “It’s just gone from bad to worse for Cathay Pacific and they’re in a very challenging position.”

“It’s going to be pretty bad for most of this year probably and will take a while for the Hong Kong market and global market to recover,” Mr. Sobie said. — Bloomberg

Park Inn by Radisson Davao taps local baker for artisan bread

DAVAO CITY — Vanessa Pacheco’s romance with artisan breads started in 2000, when she discovered a passion for baking while living in Canada.

She returned home to Davao in 2017 after completing her Artisan Bread Baking, and Baking Arts Certificates from George Brown College the year before.

By 2018, she started her home-based business, Craft Breads and Pastries, taking in orders from a small network of clients who appreciate the not-your-usual type of goods she bakes.

“Although, we have focaccia, brioche, scones, panettone (here in Davao), the ones that we get here look like these breads but they don’t taste authentic. That is why I wanted to introduce these kinds of breads to the Dabawenyos,” Ms. Pacheco said in an interview.

And there is a market now for these specialty — and more expensive — breads, she said, as the taste of locals evolve along with the city’s growing culinary scene.

Park Inn by Radisson Davao has taken notice of her work and tapped her as partner, starting with the hotel’s breakfast buffet’s bread offerings.

The hotel, strategically located at the back of SMX Convention Center, plans to expand its menu with gourmet sandwiches and toasts as well as classics in collaboration with Craft Breads and Pastries.

Ms. Pacheco said she is aiming to supply other dinning places eventually.

“They can make preparations out of these breads to make it more appealing to the Dabawenyos. Pag natikman nila (Once customers taste it), there is a chance they’ll buy the loaves. Hopefully they can entice Dabawenyos to buy the loaves from me,” she said.

The Craft Breads and Pastries line includes cheese rolls, sourdough, focaccia, brioche, and panettone.

The artisan baker’s favorite is sourdough.

“Sourdough is complicated. It’s crackly on the outside and soft and hot on the inside. The flavor is punchy and the texture is silky-chewy… My sourdough breads, from start to finish, takes three days. From feeding the starter to creating the levain (the yeast), to creating and shaping the dough, to fermenting the dough again and then baking… that is why it is special,” she said during a tasting event at the Radisson’s RBG Bar & Grill.

“I hope sourdough will take off. I was very surprised that focaccia over the holidays was our bestseller,” she said.

Orders to Craft Breads and Pastries be placed online through www.craftbreadsandpastries.com or through 0995-985-4744. — Maya M. Padillo

Netflix to offer ‘competitive, compelling’ P149 monthly plan for Filipinos

AIMING to increase its customer base in the Philippines, American streaming service Netflix is now offering a P149-per-month mobile plan for Filipinos, allowing them to watch movies on their smartphones and tablets.

“We are launching a new plan for the Philippines… We are super excited to announce that it will be offered for P149 only,” Netflix Director for Product Innovation Patrick Flemming told reporters via live video conference from Los Angeles, California on Wednesday.

With the new mobile plan, which is in addition to the existing basic, standard and premium plans, Mr. Flemming said Netflix users will be able to “watch films and shows — uninterrupted and without ads — on one smartphone or tablet at a time.”

The new plan will be officially launched in both the Philippines and Thailand on Thursday. The product had been launched in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Mr. Flemming noted that the Philippines has been an attractive market for the company as Filipinos spend more than three hours per day watching online content on their smartphones.

He also described the new mobile plan’s price point as “super competitive and compelling.”

“Filipinos watch 2x more Netflix on mobile than the rest of the world,” he said, adding that “two out of three Filipinos use downloads on their phones to watch Netflix on the go.”

“We’re enthusiastic to introduce the Mobile plan in the Philippines to make it even easier for anyone with a smartphone to enjoy Netflix. At home or on the go, now more people can watch all the shows and movies Netflix has to offer, wherever and whenever they want,” he continued.

Interested individuals may download the Netflix app or visit its official website to register for the mobile plan for P149 per month.

Its other three existing plans are basic for P369/month, standard for P459/month, and premium for 549/month.

Netflix said customers can pay for their subscription using credit and debit cards, via direct carrier billing with their existing networking provider, or with cash using a Netflix gift code.

Netflix recently reported that its membership had increased by 20% last year.

Membership in the Asia Pacific region grew by 1.75 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, bringing the total to 16.23 million.

It said 95% of its membership growth came from countries outside the US. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Empty offices, full homes: COVID-19 might strain the internet

WITH MORE people working from home to avoid coronavirus, will the internet break? The short answer is probably not. The longer answer is that there will be disruptions.

To protect workers and help stem the spread of COVID-19, companies like Twitter Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are telling employees who can work from home to stay home. In all, 42 million Americans, about 29% of the US workforce, are able to work from home. And as schools close to keep kids out of harm’s way, the pressure on home networks will grow.

“The weak link in the chain, where the system could get overloaded, is going to be the home broadband network,” said Lisa Pierce, a network expert with Gartner. “People will hit congestion, just like a highway, where the speed goes from 60 miles an hour to 20.”

Residences and neighborhoods served by lower bandwidth cable and copper-wire connections will be among the first affected. Whole families sharing a single Wi-Fi signal, all logging in at once to work or firing up TVs and tablets to stay connected and entertained, should also expect delays.

STRONG BACKBONE
On the whole, the big networks of fiber-optic cable that crisscross the country will continue to operate, hauling internet traffic between cities, according to US phone service giants AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.

“As an engineer, I will tell you that we will have the capacity in our system that employees and customers need access to, at times like this,” said Jeff McElfresh, chief executive officer of AT&T Communications, which oversees landline, wireless and TV services. “We can provide the ability to work where customers need to work and help them continue to be productive. It’s something I’m proud of. This is something we do right.”

The phone companies’ underlying confidence in their networks is due, in part, to the fact that the volume of traffic won’t necessarily change. What will change are the patterns. Traffic will originate less from offices with powerful connections and more from residential areas. Cable and phone companies that provide home broadband might develop bottlenecks at network nodes where multiple lines converge.

Among the biggest network cloggers, or bandwidth hogs, will be popular video and social-media services, like Netflix, YouTube, Facetime and Skype, according to Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics.

“Video is already 70% of all network traffic,” he said. “The moment you add in videoconferencing to all the shows the kids are watching because schools are closed, it could be a problem if everyone is trying to get on at the same time.”

DIFFUSE IMPACT
Problems are likely to range from dropped connections to slow downloads or loss of video feeds. These are familiar conditions in climates where snow days keep folks at home and can test the limits of home broadband capacity.

They’ll vary by region and time of day, depending on traffic patterns, unlike single events that we all experience, for example the disruptions caused by the recent launch of Walt Disney Co.’s Disney+ or glitches on Amazon Prime Day.

Even if home connections are robust, not every company is ready to handle a sudden surge of employees trying to log in to the office network from outside.

Many employers use virtual private networks, or VPNs, as secure, dedicated channels for remote users to access the same network they normally have at work.

Typically businesses allocate enough network capacity to accommodate the everyday needs of a small number of employees working remotely, but a large-scale shift could cause temporary trouble. Adding VPN capacity could take hours or days or maybe even weeks for some companies, according to networking experts.

Preparation can help. For a decade or more, big employers have been developing contingency plans and business-continuity strategies. Information-technology departments have developed checklists or backup procedures and employees have been briefed, or even participated in mock emergencies, to test remote connections at home or in temporary offices.

“We’re in a far better place than we were five or 10 years ago, in terms of network preparedness,” Pierce said. — Bloomberg

Stock, bond, FX trading volumes boom on volatility

LONDON — Amid frenzied selling in financial markets this week, there was a silver lining for banks and trading platforms which attracted a rush of business as investors scrambled to protect portfolios from the volatility.

European stock trading volumes swelled on Monday to more than three times their 90-day daily average, according to Refinitiv data, as share prices suffered their biggest one-day drop since the 2008 financial crisis and oil prices plunged 25%.

Ten days into March, European share trading volumes have already hit more than half their February total, Refinitiv data show.

The resurgence will be welcomed by traders. London-based inter-dealer broker TP ICAP, for instance, has seen record-breaking volumes during the past fortnight’s sell-off, CEO Nicolas Breteau told Reuters on Tuesday.

“We had reached record volumes, with clients hedging, rebalancing their portfolios … a lot of intense activity,” Mr. Breteau said, adding that while the environment affected clients, the volatility offered TP ICAP an opportunity that “gives us confidence for the future.”

Before March, trading desks at banks and elsewhere had suffered a prolonged period of low volatility and lackluster volumes, crimping profitability.

Typically, more volatile markets encourage traders to buy and sell more often, handing more revenue to market makers that charge a spread on each transaction.

Volumes are now rebounding across asset classes.

Turnover of currency futures topped $200 billion on Monday, more than double the daily average reported year-to-date, data provided to Reuters by CME showed. That included more than $70 billion of trading in euro/dollar and $49 billion in dollar/yen.

EBS, which runs one of the world’s biggest foreign exchange (FX) platforms, declined to give data for Monday but told Reuters that volumes in the four days to last Thursday had run 80% above 2019 averages.

Volumes in G10 currencies were nearly double their 2019 daily average, EBS said.

Refinitiv, another big forex market player, said Monday had been its busiest day for spot currency trading since the US Presidential Election in November 2016.

The company declined to give the dollar value for Monday’s volumes but said activity on its FX Matching platform was more than double the daily average traded during February.

Markets are now the most volatile since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge has reached its most elevated since 2008, US Treasury market volatility the highest since 2009, and price swings in the FX market are at three-year highs.

BOND TRADING
Bond trading platforms are also reporting increased activity as clients dump riskier bonds and pile into the safety of government debt such as US Treasuries, where yields have collapsed to record lows.

However, the rise in volumes last week was not dramatic and Monday actually saw reduced activity, suggesting many investors had stuck to the sidelines.

MarketAxess, which runs a major fixed-income platform, said trading of government and corporate bonds by European clients totaled €136.8 billion ($155.5 billion) on Monday. That compared with a daily average of €190 billion last week.

Daily volumes in 2020 have ranged from as low as €78 billion to as high as €228 billion, MarketAxess data showed.

Tradeweb, another company running a large bond trading platform, declined to give specific numbers.

“While we don’t report our trading activity on a daily basis, we continue to experience strong volumes across our platforms in line with broader market volatility,” Tradeweb said.

There is some evidence that the jump in volatility may also be undermining liquidity — the ease with which buyers and sellers can transact without moving the price.

Prior to Monday, traders say frenzied trading activity had generally been orderly.

“In the morning, we tried to trim a position in the benchmark 30-year US Treasury bond and were shocked when several dealers were reluctant to show us a firm price, something we can’t remember ever happening before,” TwentyFour Asset Management said in a daily note, referring to Monday.

“Normal service resumed shortly afterward, but to us this was a stark illustration of the sheer panic that permeated the market.” — Reuters

Philippine events canceled or postponed due to COVID-19 fears (as of 03/11/20)

Philippine events cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19 fears (as of 03/11/20)

Review of Barbaresco 2017 and Barbaresco Riserva 2015

BARBARESCO and Barolo wines are often inseparable — both being Piedmont’s most renowned wine regions, and both proudly made from 100% nebbiolo grapes. Both Borolo and Barbaresco were also established as DOC at the same year in 1966, and both were promoted together to DOCG status in 1980. The difference geographically is that Barolo is located in the southwest of Langhe, the province of Cuneo in Piedmont, while Barbaresco is located in the northeast. Barbaresco also lies closer to the river Tanaro and the Ligurian Sea. These twin maritime influences plus the lower altitude vineyards make the nebbiolo grapes grown in Barbaresco ripe faster than those nebbiolos planted in Barolo. The resulting wines are often more approachable, softer, have fewer tannins, and are fresher. For this same reason, the Barbarescos are allowed to be commercially released earlier than Barolos. In the last Nebbiolo Prima, we previewed the Barbaresco DOCG 2107 and the Barbaresco Riserva 2015.

BARBARESCO DOCG PARTICULARS
For the 2017 vintage, the total production of Barbaresco was around 4.2 million bottles, from its 750 hectares of vineyards. Barbaresco aging requirements are higher than those of the Roero region which I covered in my previous column, but less than those of Barolo, which I will cover in my next column. For Barbaresco DOCG, ageing a minimum of 26 months, of which minimum of nine months should be in barrel, is required before earliest commercial release, and this is basically pegged at Jan. 1 of the third year from vintage. For Barbaresco Riserva DOCG, a minimum of 50 months, of which minimum of nine months should be in barrel, are required before earliest commercial release, equating to Jan. 1 of the fifth year from vintage. These lower aging requirements make Barbaresco slightly lower in price than their Barolo counterparts.

MIX FEEDBACK FROM 2017 VINTAGE
I love my Barbarescos as much as I love my Barolos, and this year’s newly released vintage of 2017 was a bit of a mix batch. From this relatively big sample size, the Barbaresco’s typical freshness, racy raspberry and strawberry flavors were still noticeable in this vintage, but I did detect more wines with very perfumed nose that exuded lavender, violets, red roses, and all the other fragrances I typically call “detergent scents,” which I actually like for its elegance and sophistication. The difference was in the consistency of the vintage as some wines tasted green and unripe, and others were a bit too thin. This was not the case for the Barbaresco 2016 vintage I reviewed last year, which I found to be a lot more consistent in quality across the batch.

This year, we had slightly more to blind-taste of both Barbaresco DOCG and Barbaresco Riserva wines compared to last year: a total of 59 Barbaresco 2017 and 15 Barbaresco Riserva 2015 vs last year’s 55 Barbaresco 2016 and eight Barbaresco Riserva 2015 entries respectively. Coincidentally same as last year, I gave 22 wines 90 points or over for the Barbaresco 2017. But this was relatively lower in percentage compared with the 2017 with 37.3% getting 90 points or above, against 40% of the 2016 scores in the same range.

For the Barbaresco Riserva 2015, the blind tasting result was astounding as I gave seven of the 15 wines (46.7%) 90 points and above, with every wine (with one exception) scoring 88 points or over. In recent memory, this 2015 is one of the best Barbaresco Riserva vintages for me by far. In contrast, at last year’s Nebbiolo Prima, I only liked one out of the eight Barbaresco Riserva 2014 I blind tasted.

Sadly though, not many Barbaresco Riservas come our way here in the Philippines. So if you come across a Barbaresco Riserva when traveling abroad, in particular the 2015 vintage, grab a few bottles quickly before it runs out.

MY RATINGS

Please note these wines were tasted blind, and each wine was tasted for only a few minutes, given the huge quantity being tasted at any given morning during the entire Nebbiolo Prima event. Also understand that judgment on these wines was purely based on my personal biases and experience drinking, appreciating, and enjoying wines.

BEST BARBARESCO DOCG 2017
My top 22 wines from this lot of 55 wines are the following:

1-2. Castello Di Neive Barbaresco 2017: 93 points. “lavender, red petal, yet deep and intense, cherry fruit, long and very flavorful”

Voghera Luigi Barbaresco 2017: “vanilla, pie crust, lavender, violets, so much happening in the nose, voluminous, extremely round and delicious all the way”

3-6. Adriano Marco E Vittorio Barbaresco 2017: 92 points. “very succulent and juicy on the nose, stewed tomatoes, meaty, supple and long finish”

Cascina Saria Barbaresco 2017: “cassis, figs, cherries, alluring nose, long, deep and jammy”

Montaribaldi Barbaresco 2017: “tangy, fruit cocktail nose, juicy acids, very sweet and ripe at the end”

Poderi Colla Barbaresco 2017: “black currant, fresh, soft tannins, satin-like texture, crisp and delectable finish”

7-13. All with 91 points. Cascina Alberta Barbaresco 2017; Cascina Luisin Barbaresco 2017; Cascina Morassino Barbaresco 2017; Grasso Fratelli Barbaresco 2017; Il Bricco Barbaresco 2017; Prinsi Barbaresco 2017; Taverna Barbaresco 2017

14-22. All with 90 points. Collina Serragrilli Barbaresco 2017; Figli Luigi Oddero Barbaresco 2017; Giuseppe Cortese Barbaresco 2017; Icardi Barbaresco 2017;

Moccagatta Barbaresco 2017; Pelissero Barbaresco 2017; Pertinace Barbaresco 2017; Rattalino Massimo Barbaresco 2017; Tenuta Barac Barbaresco 2017

Three of my top six wines in this list — namely Castello Di Neive, Adriano Marco E Vittoro, and Cascina Saria — were also in my top 22 wines with score of 90 points and above on my vintage 2016 review last year. Seven other brands were also in this same list of 90 points and above on both vintages 2017 and 2016, namely: Pertinace (tied for No. 1 in my 2016 vintage preview), Cascina Saria, Collina Serragrilli, Rattalino Massimo, Cascina Morassino, Giuseppe Cortese and Moccagatta.

BEST BARBARESCO RISERVA DOCG 2015
My top seven with scores of 90 points and over from a group of 15 wines:

1. Punset Barbaresco Riserva 2015: 95 points. “luscious nose, long, deep and intense, supple texture, juicy acids, lovely taste with intertwined flavors of vanilla and plums, delicious bitter-sweet finish”

2. Piazzo Comm. Armando Barbaresco Riserva 2015: 93 points. “a fruit bomb from first whiff onwards, lovely bouquet with nice acacia and vanilla, juicy and plummy all the way”

3-4. Both with 92 points. La Bioca Barbaresco Riserva 2015: “black currant nose, leafy, herbal, dark fruits, nicely structured, crisp with peppery notes, complex, dry at the end” Massimo Rivetti Barbaresco Riserva 2015: “mentholated nose, pine tree, very fresh, but tannins are soft, balanced acids, round finish”

5. Castello Di Verduno Barbaresco Riserva 2015: 91 points.

6-7. Both with 90 points. Francone Barbaresco Riserva 2015; Molina Barbaresco Riserva 2015

Last year, the Francone Barbaresco Riserva 2014 was the only Barbaresco Riserva I gave 90 points to, and by coincidence once more (after the blind tasted wines were revealed), this same wine on its Riserva 2015 vintage got the same 90 points score from me.

In my next column, I will tackle the Barolo 2016 vintage.

Postscript: Let us all pray for the containment and eventual end of this COVID-19 pandemic that has reached almost 100 countries. Italy is one of the most severely hit countries. I was in Northern Italy just over a month ago before the first recorded case of coronavirus in Italy. It is in the northern part of Italy where the virus has the most cases, and also were several wine regions are in fact located. As of this writing, Italy is closing in on 4,000 cases, with the second highest number of deaths recorded (after China) and has one of the scariest increments of COVID-19 cases on daily basis.

The author is a member of the UK-based Circle of Wine Writers (CWW). For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, wine consultancy and other wine related concerns, send an e-mail to protegeinc@yahoo.com.

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