Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Ca' Rome' 2016 Barolo Cerretta opens to a deep ruby color and pretty aromatic intensity. The bouquet is authentic and pristine with wild berry aromas, blood orange, aniseed and campfire ash. There's even a cheerful hint of crushed white pepper that adds a zesty touch of spiciness to the finish. In the mouth, this wine is long and polished with lingering oak spice. Some 8,000 bottles were released.
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James Suckling
A tight, firm red with aromas of strawberries, smoky oak and walnuts that follow through to a full body, creamy tannins and a fruity finish. Drink in 2022.
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Wine Spectator
A beefy red, beginning with aromas of plum, tar and oak spice. Silky smooth until the finely wrought tannins take over on the finish, this is balanced and intense. Plum, cherry, tar, iron and tobacco flavors are capped by the long finish. Best from 2023 through 2045.
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Wine & Spirits
Dense, chewy tannins give way with air to reveal flavors of dried cherry, apple skin and dark spice. Give those tannins a few years to relent, then pour this with a ribeye.
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.