Winemaker Notes
Mauro Veglio Barolo Vigneto Gattera is a light ruby red with subtle garnet reflections. Ethereal, with uniquely sweet, spicy notes that blend perfectly with fruity and flowery aromas. Warm, slightly balsamic with delicately tannic notes offset with a good balance of alcohol. Well-structured and generous body with sweet, mouthwatering tannins. The excellent exposition of its vineyards and great thermal energy are determining factors in this wine’s character.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Gattera arrives with a focused, purposeful gravity that sets it apart immediately, black cherry and roasted purple plums at the core with clove, star anise and cinnamon woven through alongside dried thyme. The palate is built for the long game, sturdy without being bombastic, tannins anchoring the structure while bright acidity keeps things honest and a ferrous, iron note on the finish seals the deal. Order the ribeye. Drink from 2028.
Cellar Selection -
James Suckling
Tea, dried flowers and violets, with an herbal touch. Vivid fruit on the medium- to full-bodied palate–leaning more toward full–carried by energy and harmony. Fine-grained tannins contribute to the overall balance. Drink or hold.
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Decanter
Gattera boasts 75-year-old vines. As of the 2022 vintage, this bottling comes exclusively from the fresher, southeast-facing parcel, as vines on the southwestern slope had to be replanted. While not immediately effusive, the nose conveys a depth of aroma. Vanilla-tinged cherry and red plum make way for black tea nuances. The palate brings in a tarry, earthy dimension. Full, though not overtly rich, it is supple and chewy with pliant, girdling tannins. Mouthwatering with a menthol finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With fruit from La Morra, the Mauro Veglio 2022 Barolo Gattera is expressive and open, showing pretty fruit definition and floral notes of pressed rose and lilac. This site performs especially well in this challenging vintage, delivering aromas that are fine and elegant, albeit more open and accessible in personality. Drawn from the oldest portion of the Gattera vineyard, including vines that are approximately 70 years old, this southeast-facing cru produced 8,000 bottles in 2022. The wine offers a graceful interpretation of Nebbiolo with bright aromatics and polished intensity, gaining additional texture from 24 months in barrique.
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.