Winemaker Notes
Though rightly considered a Barolo expert, Vietti produces top-quality wines from all over southern Piedmont, including Barolo’s friendly rival Barbaresco. This wine is from the single vineyard Roncaglie in the Barbaresco denomination. Roncaglie comes from the Latin word roncaleis, which was the name of a former Roman settlement and means "steep road." Besides being excellent in its own right, Vietti Barbaresco presents an extraordinary opportunity to taste this wine alongside a single-vineyard Barolo produced by the same winery under similar conditions in order to experience the two great Nebbiolo denominations with as few variables as possible.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very perfumed and pretty with sliced strawberries and citrus blossom. Plenty of forest berries, too. Medium to full body. Creamy tannins and a fresh finish. Fine texture and gorgeous. Vegan. Hard not to drink but will be even better in 2027.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Vietti 2020 Barbaresco Roncaglie Masseria has bright rose, cherry, redcurrant and angel food cake with strawberries. There are mineral notes as well, and the fruit unfolds over the palate with gentle intensity. There is some oak spice, but it is very well integrated; and the wine shows good balance, especially where the tannins versus acidity is concerned.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of wandering through a lush garden filled with roses, violets, herbs and a raspberry bush lift from the glass. Vibrant and crunchy, the wine pops on the palate with pomegranate and tart cranberries supported by supple tannins and lively acidity. An intriguing herbal finish adds depth to this elegant wine.
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Wine Spectator
Cherry, plum, earth, eucalyptus and juniper flavors are the main themes in this supple red. Dusty tannins emerge at the end, yet overall this is balanced and persistent on the finish. Decant for a few hours now or age this another two to three years. Best from 2027 through 2043. 465 cases made, 150 cases imported.
Located in the heart of the Langhe hills, at the top of the village of Castiglione Falletto, the Vietti wine cellar was founded in the late 1800's by Carlo Vietti. The estate has gradually grown over the course of time, and today the vineyards include some of the most highly prized terroirs within the Barolo and Barbaresco winegrowing areaS.
Although they have been making wine for four generations, the turning point came in the 1960's when Luciana Vietti married winemaker and art connoisseur Alfredo Currado, whose intuitions - from the production of one of the first Barolo crus (Rocche di Castiglione - 1961), through the single-varietal vinification of Arneis (1967) to the invention of Artist Labels (1974) - made him both symbol and architect of some of the most significant revolutions of the time.
Alfredo’s intellectual, professional, and prospective legacy was taken up by Luca Currado Vietti (Luciana and Alfredo’s son) and his wife Elena, who contributed greatly to the success of the Vietti brand before their departure in 2023. In 2016 the historic winery was acquired by Krause family. Over the last seven year, they have added a number of prized crus to the estate’s holdings. In 2022 the winery was named Winery of the Year by Antonio Galloni of Vinous.
Vietti is universally recognized today as being one of the very finest Italian wine labels - by continuing along the path of the pursuit of quality, considered experimentation and working for expansion and consolidation internationally.
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.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.