Ceretto Barolo Brunate 2016
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I wasn't sure how to order my tasting flight of Ceretto's four single-vineyard Baroli (from Castiglione Falletto, Monforte d'Alba and Serralunga d'Alba), so I decided to start with this wine from Brunate in La Morra, at the heart of the appellation. The 2016 Barolo Brunate shows a dark core of fruit, and you are immediately aware of the depth and profound nature of this wine. The bouquet is lifted by cassis, wild cherry and plum. The ferrous quality that we saw in some of the other wines is softer here, and I would describe Brunate as the most fruit-forward (at this young stage) with elegant tannins and impactful fruit weight on the finish. All of these wines are aged in new oak (just 10% of the total) and used oak barrel (90%) for the first 12 months. After that, the wine is racked into Austrian oak casks for an additional two years before going into bottle for one more year.
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James Suckling
The purity of fruit here is so beautiful with sliced strawberries, violets and hints of black truffle. It’s full-bodied, yet balanced and chewy with lots of tannins. Very persistent at the end. Give this time to open and show its outstanding quality. Drink after 2023.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe and charming, with cherry, plum, earth and mineral aromas and flavors harmonizing with the tight grid of tannins. This is vivid and picks up salty licorice accents on the lingering finish. Best from 2023 through 2040.
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Wine Enthusiast
Forest-floor, iris and perfumed berry aromas mingle with menthol notes on this full-bodied elegant red. Delivering finesse and flavor, the taut tight palate offers juicy red cherry, strawberry compote, cinnamon and tobacco framed in firm fine-grained tannins. Fresh acidity keeps it balanced. Drink 2026–2036.
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Decanter
This is less perfumed on the nose than the regular Barolo, but it still shows charming, delicate raspberry fruit and a marked floral character. Rich and suave, this has polished tannins and a light touch that still allows the wine's underlying power to come through. It's not too assertive or grippy, and has the harmony and finesse one hopes for from this top La Morra site. Attractive acidity gives a piquant, spicy finish that's also firm and solid. Balanced and long.
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The Langhe hills of Piedmont constitute that area of northern Italy where the wide and flat Pò river valley suddenly disappears and gives way on all sides to hulking and precipitous slopes. The Langhe hills are more than hills. They are ancient and rugged earth. Their narrow peaks are topped by castles, and they are thick to the horizon with grapevines. The Langhe hills are home to a small group of farmers and winemakers who, together, have succeeded in creating some of the planet’s finest expressions of place.
The Ceretto family is among that fortunate group. For three generations members of the Ceretto family have transformed the fruit of the Langhe’s vineyards into wines that speak of the regions identity. The famed Italian gastronome and intellectual Luigi Veronelli wrote, "The land, the land, the land, the land, always, the land." This philosophy is central to the Ceretto family. Reverence for this land has passed from Riccardo, who blended fruit from the region’s best vineyards, to Bruno and Marcello, who purchased Langhe vineyards and began bottling single crus, and finally to Alessandro, who is taking the winery into the 21st century by using natural methods to foster vines that are stronger, healthier, and more in balance with their environment. The Ceretto family has always been committed to producing the most expressive and authentic wines their land can yield.
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo wine region includes five core townships: La Morra, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and the Barolo village itself, as well as a few outlying villages. The landscape of Barolo, characterized by prominent and castle-topped hills, is full of history and romance centered on the Nebbiolo grape. Its wines, with the signature “tar and roses” aromas, have a deceptively light garnet color but full presence on the palate and plenty of tannins and acidity. In a well-made Barolo wine, one can expect to find complexity and good evolution with notes of, for example, strawberry, cherry, plum, leather, truffle, anise, fresh and dried herbs, tobacco and violets.
There are two predominant soil types here, which distinguish Barolo from the lesser surrounding areas. Compact and fertile Tortonian sandy marls define the vineyards farthest west and at higher elevations. Typically the Barolo wines coming from this side, from La Morra and Barolo, can be approachable relatively early on in their evolution and represent the “feminine” side of Barolo, often closer in style to Barbaresco with elegant perfume and fresh fruit.
On the eastern side of the Barolo wine region, Helvetian soils of compressed sandstone and chalks are less fertile, producing wines with intense body, power and structured tannins. This more “masculine” style comes from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba. The township of Castiglione Falletto covers a spine with both soil types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.