Winemaker Notes
Ruby and garnet red in color, this elegant and harmonious wine offers notes of mature fruits, mint, eucalyptus, and fine spices with fine tannins.
Pair with mushroom pasta, roasted meat and game, and mature cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Pure and nervy minerals entice the nose with savory, salted plums and oranges. Plenty of fruit and structure at the same time on the palate. The tannins are chalky and resolved, leaving a tight, long and not overly austere finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Michele Chiarlo 2020 Barolo Cerequio generally has more heft and power compared to the Cannubi, but like that wine, it also shows some of the extra concentration and root-versus-fruit flavors that come with a hot vintage. The wine is softly textured with fine and accessible tannins.
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Wine Enthusiast
The beauty of wine lies in the uniqueness of each vintage. The 2020 Cerequio showcases the vibrancy of fruit from this vineyard. Aromas of ripe cherries, crushed strawberries and red-currant jam intertwine with hints of wild mint, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. The 2020 vintage demonstrates that Barolo can be enjoyed now or later, with its soft and approachable tannins inviting immediate consumption. The plump fruit core and elegant palate are elevated by fresh acidity on the finish, making this wine a delightful and versatile choice for any occasion.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A deep youthful garnet color, the 2020 Barolo Cerequio is lifted and savory with notes of tobacco, mint, dried cherries, and peppery spices. Medium-bodied, it has a nicely balanced and approachable feel on the palate, with ripe tannins, a weightless feel, and an elegant ripeness of sweet fruit evenly balanced throughout. It retains nice freshness and is going to drink well now or over the next 5-6 years.
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Vinous
The 2020 Barolo Cerequio is another fine choice in this range for near and medium-term drinking. Macerated cherry, mocha, spice, crushed rose petals and a kiss of oak all grace this mid-weight, open-knit Barolo from La Morra's Cerequio vineyard.
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Wine Spectator
Cherry, raspberry, iron and menthol flavors abound in this rich, powerful red. Assertive tannins leave a strong grip on the finish, while both the fruity and savory elements linger. Best from 2028 through 2043.
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.