Winemaker Notes
Ruby red color. The nose is full, complex and elegant. Notes of intense red fruit and plum with underbrush nuances. On the palate it is balanced, silky, enveloping and complete. The tannin is present and well-integrated. The finish is long and persistent. We recommend decanting it a few hours before serving.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I spent a good amount of time huddled over this fantastic bottle over the course of a few days. This is another masterpiece in a long line of masterpieces from the Villero site in Castiglione Falletto that is definitely a personal MGA favorite. The Vietti 2016 Barolo Riserva Villero can be summed up in a single word: seamless. You immediately recognize the strong personalized style of the wine despite the Vietti ownership changes, although in truth this vintage was still under the guide of Luca and Elena Penna-Currado because the estate was sold in July 2016 and they stayed on to make wines for a few more years to follow. The smoothness of the wine represents a continuum across various chapters of dark fruit, roasted chestnut, iron ore, blood orange, aniseed and white truffle. It does not have the weightlessness of some of today's top Barolo; in fact, quite the opposite: this is a wine of depth, full-bodied texture and smooth transitions.
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Wine Spectator
Complex aromas and flavors of cherry, raspberry, rose, wild herbs, stony mineral and autumn woods are the hallmarks of this elegant red, which is beginning to reveal all of its facets yet is still structured. Leaves a chalky feel of refined tannins on the long finish. Best from 2026 through 2045.
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James Suckling
This is a very complex Barolo. Reserved at first, it then shows stylish aromas of rhubarb, potpourri, dried cherries, red currants, stony minerality and whiffs of leather and prunes. Full-bodied with tension, good concentration and firm, dusty, yet ripe tannins. Restrained blood orange aftertaste, with acidity that carries the high-flying finish. Drinkable now, but best from 2026.
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.