Winemaker Notes
The wine displays an intense ruby red color with violet reflections and offers an elegant, harmonious nose of red fruits and delicate rose petals, complemented by subtle hints of underbrush, mint, and licorice; on the palate it is vigorous, full-bodied, and balanced, with persistent yet supple tannins and a juicy finish marked by notes of blackberry and blueberry jam.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Detailed and delicate aromas of rose petals, hibiscus, tile and red currants. The palate is medium- to full-bodied with polished, supple tannins that turn chewy toward the finish. Lovely delineated red fruit flavors. It has an imposing tannin structure but is nuanced and approachable, with pretty fruit and linear acidity. Already a joy to taste, but better in 2027.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With fruit from Monforte d'Alba, the Mauro Veglio 2021 Barolo Castelletto (with 6,500 bottles created) reveals power and important richness that is noticed in the wine's darker appearance. Blackcurrant and cherry are framed by licorice, tar and rusty nail. The Castelletto performs very nicely in 2021, showing balance, precision and power. You notice the oak as the wine opens in the glass. It ages in barrique for two years, with 25% new wood.
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Vinous
The 2021 Barolo Castelletto is one of the most potent of these wines. It exudes tons of textural depth and overall intensity. Dark cherry, red plum, blood orange, spice and rose petal saturate the palate. All the 2021 needs is a bit of time to shed some of its baby fat. Today the aromatics are especially alluring. Brisk acids and beams of supporting tannin round out a super-classic expression of Monforte's Castelletto district.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Barolo Castelletto reveals a jeweled ruby color and is highly expressive on the nose, with violet perfume, black raspberries, menthol, and toasted sage. The palate is full and expanding, with fleshy noble tannins, a bright spine of acidity, warming spice, and a dark brooding nature through the long finish. This is another commanding wine with good detail that will be worth aging and checking in on over the next 15 or more years.
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Wine Spectator
Supple and expressive, offering pure cherry, raspberry, floral and mineral aromas and flavors. This red feels elegant, with a light dusting of tannins on the long finish.
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.