Winemaker Notes
The Aldo Clerico farm was born in 2004, when Aldo decided to apply the experience acquired after working for some years among the most prestigious wineries in Monforte d'Alba. He takes over the management of the family business, renovating the old cellar and building a new part to embark on the path of winemaking and subsequent refinement of the wines.
The vineyards, 6 hectares owned by the company, always cultivated with passion and skill by the grandfather and parents, are now cultivated by Aldo who represents the third generation with renewed passion and rigorous respect for the territory. Mostly located in the municipality of Monforte d'Alba, in the heart of the Barolo area and to a lesser extent in Monchiero, the Dogliani production area.
The result is a new creativity.
Fine wines, with great structure, long lasting. Good-bodied, fruity, velvety and undisputed quality wines.
A great wine comes from the right composition of the soil, from the southern exposure of the vineyards and from an ideal microclimate, requirements which these vines certainly enjoy. But the care dedicated to the maintenance of the vineyard and above all the sacrificial thinning of the bunches in the period before the harvest are equally important. An operation necessary to guarantee the grapes a correct and complete ripening.
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.
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.