Winemaker Notes
An explosive energy of Serralunga d’Alba with grace and vigor. Black cherries, wild berries and plums with menthol, sage and saline notes. Pure ardor. The wine is aged 30 months in large casks.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Compact and very linear red with firm, polished tannins that are tightly compressed to create fine chewiness. The red fruit, flowers and minerals are impressive, too. A new wine from Azelia from this wonderful vineyard. Well done. Give it three to four years to come together. Drink after 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The newest single-vineyard Barolo to be released by this estate in celebration of its centennial anniversary, the Azelia 2016 Barolo Cerretta offers a rich and slightly sweet quality of primary fruit with cherry, wild plum and summer fig. Like many wines from Serralunga d'Alba, the bouquet tends to unwind in broad, sweeping motions instead of the quickly paced crescendo of high notes that you get in Castiglione Falletto, for example. This wine washes over the palate with rich textural fiber (with very elegant tannins) and an open-knit fabric of dark cherry and blackberry aromas all framed by earthy tones of black truffle and iron ore. This wine represents the efforts of three decades of hard work. Luigi Scavino's father had long dreamed of making a Barolo from Cerretta, but the family waited 30 years to have old, well-established vines. Like the other Baroli from Azelia, fermentations see submerged cap, and skin maceration times are long, up to 60 days. The wine ages in large oak casks for 30 months.
Rating: 96+ -
Wine Spectator
Scents of rose, tar, cherry and black currant rise from the glass of this dense, supple red. Firm, polished tannins take hold as this evolves on the long finish. There’s a purity and finesse that needs some time to emerge. Best from 2024 through 2045.
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.
