Winemaker Notes
Bright garnet with light orange hues. Rich and powerful at first, but extremely elegant with a texture of silky, enveloping tannins; great harmony and long-tasting flavor. On the nose, the wine is complex and intense with great charm, with balsamic notes, violet, small black fruits, truffle and fine spices.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Rose, crushed mint, red berry and baking spice aromas shape the nose on this fragrant red. Seamlessly combining structure and finesse, the focused palate delivers juicy Marasca cherry, pomegranate, licorice and menthol alongside firm, fine-grained tannins while fresh acidity keeps it balanced. It's still youthfully austere and promises excellent aging potential. Drink 2023–2043.
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Decanter
Controlling 120 hectares across Piedmont, Chiarlo produces many wines, including a great Cerequio from La Morra. The scarce Riserva comes from a 0.9ha parcel, aged initially in tonneaux and then in casks. The nose is robust with cherry and rose-petal aromas, and just a hint of boiled sweets. Bright and limpid, this has charm and elegance rather than great weight and concentration. It's still tight thanks to good acidity, and the structure is deceptively discreet. Elegant, poised and polished, this is a well balanced and persistent Riserva.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Here is a special late-release Riserva from Michele Chiarlo. The 2013 Barolo Riserva Cerequio is a big wine that reveals extra tight tannins and concentrated richness that permeates its substantial textural fiber. Dark fruit aromas come forth with blackberry and dried cherry backed by spice, leather, tar and campfire ash. The wine shows the concentration and density of extended oak aging with tannins that feel sharp, young and astringent at this stage. This wine requires more cellar aging before it softens and finds better integration.
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Wine Spectator
Aromas of leather, menthol, wild rosemary and tar segue to flavors of plum, cherry and earth in this red. It concludes with a matrix of dense tannins that leave a tight, compact finish. This shows complexity and depth, so be patient. Best from 2023 through 2045.
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.