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98
JANUARY 2025
Vietti Barolo Monvigliero DOCG 2021
Lots of violets, cola and blueberries on the nose, complemented by a clay pot note. Fascinating aromatics. The palate is medium- to full-bodied with polished tannins. A cohesive and complete wine that’s angular and incisive, with subtlety, precision and elegance. Lots of personality in each detail. It needs at least four years to soften. But what a wine.
96
JANUARY 2024
Vietti Barolo Riserva Villero DOCG 2016
The 2016 Barolo Riserva Villero is a dense, packed wine. Black cherry, plum, licorice, leather and incense add to an impression of brooding, virile intensity. Readers will have to be patient, as the 2016 clearly needs time. Even so, my belief remains what it has always been—that Villero is not the best vineyard in the Vietti range. That is even more apparent today, given the new sites that have been added to the range. The logic of making the estate's Riserva, theoretically the estate's top wine, from this site has always escaped me. That is more true today than ever, given the elite sites Vietti has added to their range in recent years.
96
JANUARY 2025
Vietti Barbaresco Roncaglie DOCG 2021
Past vintages of this wine were called Roncaglie Masseria, but the word Masseria has been removed. The Vietti 2021 Barbaresco Roncaglie draws its fruit from inclined vineyards that produce fruit with finesse and elegance. This pretty wine opens to a note of fragrant flower or heritage rose that accompanies you over a long, silky close. In a good vintage like 2021, vintners could push skin macerations a little longer. This wine saw 25 days on the skins compared to 22 days in the 2022 vintage. Vietti recently purchased land in Rabajà, a site that produces profound wines, and this plot in Roncaglie has a greater presence of sand in its soils, creating more floral and delicate expressions instead. This matures in large oak casks for 24 months, and production is 6,066 bottles.
98+
JANUARY 2025
Vietti Barolo Ravera DOCG 2021
You could argue that this is the wine with the fasting growing quality trajectory because this vineyard site is one of those rare places in the appellation that appears to improve despite (or more likely because of) a changing climate. Ravera enjoys an open panorama (at 400 to 440 meters in elevation) that extends to the snow-capped Alps and benefits from cooler air currents, coupled with an amazing quality of light that you notice with the naked eye. The 2021 Barolo Ravera saw its fruit harvested later than the other wines, on October 11th, and continued with a classic Vietti-style fermentation with 20-plus days of skin contact. Simply put, what Ravera offers is complexity (and strength) with hints of bergamot, citrus, herbs, mineral and salt over a tightly concentrated mouthfeel. The quality of the tannins and the freshness of this 2021 are impressive, and that citrusy note continues with tangerine skin and kumquat. Production is 8,700 bottles.
97
JANUARY 2025
Vietti Barolo Lazzarito DOCG 2021
A graceful and enticing wine with complex, assertive cinnamon, melon, watermelon, earth, strawberries and peonies on the nose. This is a wine that breathes, with a full body, great fruit concentration, restrained blood orange flavors, lavish, elegant tannins and long, lifted acidity. Slightly stern in the finish, as expected from a young Barolo. Best after 2028.
96
JANUARY 2025
Vietti Barolo Cerequio DOCG 2021
Choices, choices, choices... The Vietti 2021 Barolo Cerequio is another classic from this over-performing estate. This parcel was purchased in 2018 from the Chiarlo family (the Krause family acquired Vietti in 2016), and although the location is La Morra, the site behaves more like Sarmassa in Barolo, creating wines with a firm, tight entry and good structure. You could say that it has a nervous character now in its adolescence, and of course we expect it to smooth out and find harmony with time. Fruit was harvested on September 30th, and the wine sees 27 days of extended skin maceration. Compared to Brunate, which is always darker in character, the Cerequio is lighter and brighter with pretty primary fruit. Production is 4,890 bottles.
96
JANUARY 2025
Vietti Barolo Rocche di Castiglione DOCG 2021
Aromas of red fruit, strawberries, raspberries, dried herbs, violets and crushed stones. The palate is juicy and full-bodied with fine-grained tannins that turn chewy toward the finish but balance the core of pretty fruit. Better from 2027.
94
JANUARY 2025
Vietti Barbera d'Alba Vigna Scarrone DOC 2022
The 2022 Barbera d'Alba Vigna Scarrone is a classy, elegant wine. Today's Scarrone marries finesse and power with notable style. Racy dark red plum, mocha, new leather, licorice and spice are all beautifully delineated. This deep, classy Barbera is lights out.
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