Winemaker Notes
The most serious of the wines from Clerico every year, the most powerful in concentration and structure of the 3 single vineyards offered.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A medium red color, the 2021 Barolo Ciabot Mentin is a more focused and linear wine coming from higher elevations and cooler exposure. Offering notes of red berries, rhubarb, cranberries, mint, cinnamon spice, and orange peel, it’s medium-bodied, focused, and long on the palate. This is my favorite of these wines and has fantastic energy and saltiness all around, followed by a long finish with hints of apricot or citrus. Drink over the coming 20 or so years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Between the Pajana and the Ciabot Mentin, I have a preference for the latter. The Domenico Clerico 2021 Barolo Ginestra Ciabot Mentin comes from the higher part of the slope (with vines planted in 1978) and offers an extremely precise and finely stitched bouquet that incorporates elements of cassis, wild berry, herb, blue flower and crushed stone. The mineral signature is a little more pronounced in this wine, and it leans into iron ore and rusty nail. Like the Pajana, the tannins are quite firm, and the wine will need more time in bottle to integrate. This is a release of 5,500 bottles and 150 magnums.
Rating: 97+ -
Decanter
Like Pajana, Ciabot Mentin is a single vineyard within the Ginestra MGA. It boasts higher elevations, reaching 450m and is oriented towards the southeast. The slightly fresher microclimate gives a less overtly rich wine, though this is still amply concentrated. It shows intense balsamic notes of peppermint, bay leaf and sage blossom against a dark fruit canvas. Savoury and sapid, the palate is packed with deep forest nuance while brisk acidity brightens. Sturdy, slightly angular tannins will need a few years to relax their firm clench.
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James Suckling
Aromas of sweet violets, potpourri, dried cherries, pomegranates and hints of chocolate, licorice and blood oranges. Full-bodied on the palate, it shows delicate, ripe and velvety tannins that are tightly knit with acidity, pushing the finish in a sophisticated way. Best after 2027.
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Wine Spectator
An oak spice hint underlines this dense, powerful red, whose cherry, plum, iron, tar and tobacco flavors are married to beefy tannins. This feels well-balanced despite its compact character now, with all of the elements in the right place. Best from 2030 through 2050.
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.