Winemaker Notes
Intense garnet red color. Rich aroma of fruit, licorice, rose and violet with light hints of wood. Full and dry flavor with soft and velvety tannins.
Due to its characteristics of structure and body it pairs well with meat dishes, game and cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Earthy red and black berries, some wood polish and fragrant spices. Intense and concentrated, grippy tannins and bright acidity allied to crunchy, tangy red fruits and plummy dark fruits. Quite vertical in style, with some salinity on the long, vibrant and fresh finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Displaying a slightly deeper shade of red into ruby, the 2019 Barolo Cerretta also expresses a more saturated fruit profile on the nose, with notes of crushed raspberries, violets, menthol, and balsamic herbs. Medium to full bodied, it’s more expansive, with broad, ripe tannins that build in grip, ripe concentration (though not heavy), and a warming finish. It’s going to benefit from another year in bottle. Drink 2025-2035.
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Vinous
The 2019 Barolo Cerretta is a powerhouse. Macerated dark cherry, leather, incense, smoke, cured meats, licorice and game give this Serralunga Barolo tons of brooding, somber intensity. A few years in bottle should be beneficial.
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Wine Spectator
This expressive red is solidly built, offering cherry, raspberry, incense and mineral aromas and flavors, with overall balance and a long finish. Shows excellent persistence and energy. Best from 2027 through 2043.
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James Suckling
Attractive mix of red berries, citrus peel and red spices with hints of cocoa and dried flowers. Firm and linear on the palate with medium body and fine, slightly chewy tannins. Lingering, vertical, slightly austere finish. Better after 2027.
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Wine Enthusiast
Candied cherries, dried rose, cedar and underbrush aromas lift from the glass of this Barolo. It's juicy on the palate with ripe raspberry and red currant with clove, cinnamon and dried herbs finishing with firm tannins. Drink 2028–2040.
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.