Winemaker Notes
Garnet red with orange reflections in the ageing. Bouquet has notes of violet, cherry and balsamic nuances of vanilla and licorice. Taste is intense, elegant and persistent, with notes of red fruit and, with ageing, tobacco and leather.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dark-berry, iron, cedar and floral aromas follow through to a full body, tight and chewy tannins and a long, flavorful finish. A big and chewy red. Needs four or five years to soften. Better after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Barolo Cerequio is a nicely balanced and easy wine with a fleshy and fruit-forward personality. This Barolo is from one of the appellation's greatest crus, and it offers a level of softness and richness that you will unlikely find in the other vintages. The wine is gearing up for a healthy and long bottle evolution ahead.
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Wine Spectator
Packed with cherry and strawberry flavors, this red is supple and juicy, with a spine of serious tannins. Leather and tar notes augment the fruit, while iron and tobacco elements weigh in on the long finish. Best from 2023 through 2042.
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Decanter
Damilano produces just one 30hl oak barrel of Cerequio. Rightly considered quite feminine with its typical leafy lightness, in this warm and generous 2015 vintage it shows good concentration. It's paler in colour than the other crus, coming out of the glass with graceful aromas of rosewater, blood orange, mountain pine freshness and a depth of tar, sustained by a vibrant palate of firm yet velvety tannins with thick weight and refreshing acidity.
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Wine Enthusiast
Blue flower, wild herb and woodland berry aromas shape the nose. Elegantly structured, the focused palate shows cranberry, Marasca cherry, crushed mint and star anise set against fine-grained tannins. Drink 2023–2030.
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.