Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is a beautiful creation from a vintage that threw quite a few challenges at vintners elsewhere in Italy and here in Piedmont. The Ceretto 2017 Barbaresco Bernadot plays up its elegance and its graceful personality. With fruit from an organic and biodynamic 4.8-hectare site in Treiso, planted high at 400 meters above sea, this pretty Barbaresco reveals very specific aromas of wild berry, light spice, licorice and iron rust. These aromas are essential components of the classic Nebbiolo playlist, as is the lightweight, silky texture of this wine. The Bernadot is natural and effortless (aged in mostly neutral oak).
Rating: 94(+) -
Wine Enthusiast
This offers aromas suggesting red berry, coconut, underbrush and menthol. On the focused, rather austere palate, tightly wound, close-grained tannins accompany cranberry, pomegranate and roasted coffee bean before a lean, assertive finish. Give the tannins a few more years to unfurl, then drink to capture the remaining fruit.
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Wine Spectator
A beam of pure cherry bisects this elegant red, with firm structure giving support. Earth, iron and spice notes add detail. Fine length. Best from 2022 through 2037.
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.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.