Ceretto Barolo Bricco Rocche 2004
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Pairing suggestions: red meats, also richly-cooked braised meats game cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This is very raisiny, almost meaty, with an ultrarich nose. Full-bodied, showing sultana and dried flowers on the palate, with chewy tannins. Very long and powerful on the finish. Almost Port-like. Hints of vanilla and sultana. A top Bricco Rocche. Best after 2012. 600 cases made.
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Wine Enthusiast
This excellent Barolo from Ceretto’s Bricco Rocche estate represents a perfect marriage between grape and winemaking. The integrity of the fruit is there—plush, round, intense—and is supported by oak-driven notes of vanilla, cinnamon, cigar box and ground ginger. In the mouth, it tastes smooth and supple and offers long-lasting intensity.
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Wine & Spirits
Bricco Rocche is one of the benchmark wines of Barolo, introduced in 1982 by Bruno and Marcello Ceretto. The '04 is youthful and expressive on release, its sleek texture a veil hiding the wine's depth and power. The structure becomes more apparent with air, melding earthy tannins and brisk acidity gleaned from Bricco Rocche's mixed clay soils and 1,100-foot elevation. It feels elegant, with lasting flavors of dark earth, orange zest and red plum. Built for the cellar, this will age gracefully for a decade or more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The estate's 2004 Barolo Bricco Rocche reveals an expansive, generous personality. Macerated cherries, spices, vanilla, tar and smoke develop as this pretty, sumptuous wine opens in the glass. Silky tannins and a resonating note of sweetness from the oak carry through to the long finish.
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The Langhe hills of Piedmont constitute that area of northern Italy where the wide and flat Pò river valley suddenly disappears and gives way on all sides to hulking and precipitous slopes. The Langhe hills are more than hills. They are ancient and rugged earth. Their narrow peaks are topped by castles, and they are thick to the horizon with grapevines. The Langhe hills are home to a small group of farmers and winemakers who, together, have succeeded in creating some of the planet’s finest expressions of place.
The Ceretto family is among that fortunate group. For three generations members of the Ceretto family have transformed the fruit of the Langhe’s vineyards into wines that speak of the regions identity. The famed Italian gastronome and intellectual Luigi Veronelli wrote, "The land, the land, the land, the land, always, the land." This philosophy is central to the Ceretto family. Reverence for this land has passed from Riccardo, who blended fruit from the region’s best vineyards, to Bruno and Marcello, who purchased Langhe vineyards and began bottling single crus, and finally to Alessandro, who is taking the winery into the 21st century by using natural methods to foster vines that are stronger, healthier, and more in balance with their environment. The Ceretto family has always been committed to producing the most expressive and authentic wines their land can yield.
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.