Winemaker Notes
Ruby-red color. The nose is intense yet delicate, with notes of ripe red berries and fine spices. The unmistakably elegant hints of wild strawberry, rose and cherry are striking on the palate. The tannins are rounded, silky and persistent. Every ounce of the harmony and balance of this cru —one of the Barolo region’s most special —stands out. A wine that has in its aromatic complexity and gustative depth all its distinctive characteristics.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Barolo Monvigliero is a distinctly different expression within the range. Influenced by the Tanaro River and produced with roughly 60% whole cluster fermentation, it pours a paler ruby hue. Aromas of preserved strawberries, sweet cinnamon, floral perfume, Mediterranean herbs, saline, and licorice emerge from the glass. Medium-bodied, the palate is fresh and elegant, with a supple texture and refined spice as the stems achieve greater ripeness in this site. 5,500 bottles were produced. Drink 2026-2038.
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Wine Enthusiast
Warmed strawberries, currant jam and roses fill the glass with generous, unhurried warmth. The palate opens quickly and fully, cherry fruit rich and deeply textured, nothing held back, juicy tannins threading through with easy elegance. Pull the cork for a leg of lamb slow-roasted until it gives up without a fight. Drink now to 2050.
Cellar Selection -
Decanter
To an already dizzying list of Barolo’s most lauded sites, Vietti added Monvigliero in 2018. A plot of just over half a hectare is comprised of vines with an average age of 44 years old. The 2022 is just so classically fragrant and expressive. Pepper, strawberry blossom, pressed rose and beeswax waft headily. Lightweight but not lacking in flavour, the palate surges with red forest berries sprinkled with mint. Zesty, citrussy acidity makes the mouth water. Crisp tannins have a snappy firmness yet this glides with grace. Exceptionally precise and complex.
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James Suckling
An overt, fruity profile, rich with fresh red cherries, smashed blood oranges and aromatic herbs, enhanced by licorice. Medium-bodied on the palate, showing angular tannins with crisp acidity and an austere yet toasted finish. Best after 2026.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of the newer additions to Vietti's Barolo portfolio, the 2022 Barolo Monvigliero is quickly establishing itself among the estate's most compelling wines. The warm, dry vintage lends the wine a more open and immediate personality than usual. Monvigliero's hallmark floral character is still evident, but instead of fresh, lifted violets, the bouquet leans toward candied flowers and dried petals, recalling sun-drenched bougainvillea with hints of green tea. Those warm-vintage signatures make for a charming and approachable expression, while the tannins remain fine and polished. Aged for 24 months in large oak casks, it is produced in 5,522 bottles.
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Vinous
The 2022 Barolo Monvigliero is another very pretty wine in this range from Vietti. Floral notes meld into crushed red berry fruit, orange peel, mint, rose petal, sage and chalk. The 60% stems are not especially evident in the aromatics or flavor profile, although they do lift the wine nicely. I don't see quite the dimension of the best Barolos in this range, but the Monvigliero is nevertheless a success in this very challenging year.
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.
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.