Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This edition of the prized Cerequio Barolo by Michele Chiarlo flaunts its own unique personality with immediate aromas of white cherry, red apple, tar, licorice powder and root beer. It’s a polished, squeaky- clean wine with a long finish that seems more buoyant and vertical compared to past vintages.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Barolo Cerequio is a powerful, deep wine loaded with plums, black cherries, minerals, violets and spices. This, too, is a virile, powerful Barolo from one of the region's top sites. The Cerequio boasts superior concentration and a long, intense finish. With time in the glass the wine turns quite a bit more delicate and crystalline, revealing the kaleidoscopic personality that makes Cerequio such a great site. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2026.
This is a strong set of new releases from Michele Chiarlo. I found that the Barbareschi and Baroli needed several hours of air to come together, so readers are advised to open these wines well in advance.
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Wine & Spirits
Full ripeness, dense extract and new oak all contribute to this wine’s modern profile. Its cherry plum flavors broaden and sweeten in the finish. This is ready now, and suited to drinking over the next several years, particularly with a thick-cut steak.
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.