2019 Agricola Brandini La Morra, Barolo DOCG, Cerretta, Serralunga d’Alba, Piemonte, Italy.
I was able to taste through a panel of Brandini’s Barolo offerings and contrast the cooler 2019 and warmer 2020 vintages, with each providing alluring charms here at Brandini and I found it impossible to make a firm judgement on them, but I did absolutely love this 2019 Cerretta cru bottling. The cooler, delicately floral and mineral toned 2019 Cerretta is still full bodied and firmly tannic on the palate with dense dark berry, damson plum, black currant and cherry fruits, along with hints of earthy forrest floor, cedar, minty herbs, chalky stone and black licorice accents, all what you’d want and expect from a young Nebbiolo. The Agricola Brandini La Morra Estate, as noted in my prior reviews, is owned by Piero Bagnasco and run by his daughters, Giovanna and Serena, and while in fact they are a pretty recent venture, just starting back in 2007, they have a small collection of prime Barolo vines, and I found the wines to be beautifully made, elegantly focused and very exciting, as this Cerretta cru shows. As noted in my most recent review of Brandini, winemaker Giovanna Bagnasco has been experimenting with whole cluster fermentation and this one saw close to 50%, which adds complexity and exotic sex appeal element to her wines. Blending forward thinking, with an eye on the climate changes and environmental sustainability, along with historical traditions make these Brandini efforts an excellent choice for Barolo enthusiasts.
The Cerretta Vineyard, located in the Serralunga d’Alba zone of Barolo and is an elite and pedigreed site set on classic calcareous clay Marl and sandy soils with an elevation of about 340 meters above sea level, situated on steep South facing hillside. The Brandini parcels were planted in the 1980s, which provides mature concentration and good ripening conditions and allows for the partial whole cluster and stem inclusion. When tasting through her lovely 2019 and 2020 Baroli, Giovanna told me of her journey and growth as a winemaker, which included many visits to Burgundy and Champagne, where she became convinced that with climate change and in the search for elegance in Nebbiolo, that whole cluster was part of the solution, along with a re-think on farming in Piemonte’s historic Barolo zone. Giovanna said that instead of going full out for concentration and ripeness, there needs to be a more nuanced approach and canopy management is very key in warm years to give the grapes the best conditions to achieve the balance and heath that she believes are key to great wine. Her latest efforts show this finesse and purity she’s looking for and these are very exciting wines that see mostly neutral format large 20HL Slovanian botte, to promote transparency. She also said that she prefers to get he wines out of cask early to preserve freshness and aromatics, which you can clearly see in her 2019, which need time to evolve in the bottle and the more ready to go and open knit 2020 Barolo releases.
($108 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive