2019 Vietti, Barolo DOCG “Castiglione” Piedmonte, Italy.
It’s always a treat to drink Luca Currado’s Vietti wines and in particular his Nebbiolo offerings, and this 2019, while youthful and backward, gives plenty of promise for future rewards with heady fruit concentration and a serious sense of underlying structure, but enjoying ripe and sweet tannin, a plush palate and expressive aromatics. I was surprised by the vintage’s richness and depth of fruit in this version, though can see that things will calm down, tighten up and allow the more classic Nebbiolo character come through, as with air this Castiglione Barolo delivers dark berry, plum, brandied cherry and red currant fruits along with subtle savory notes, dried herbs, anise and cedary wood accents. I found a lot to like here, as per normal, and this dark ruby/garnet wine continues to evolve and fill out with time in the glass, adding a pleasing depth, delicate earthy tones and lingering florals. The Vietti winery, led by Luca and his wife Elena Currado, is located in Castiglione Falletto in the famous Barolo zone of the Cuneo province, it was founded in the late 1800’s by Carlo Vietti, who set it up for great success from day one.
The grapes for Vietti’s Barolo DOCG Castiglione, as mentioned in my prior reviews, are sourced from some serious lieu-dit vineyards in the Barolo region with a selection of vines between 10 and 43 years old and set on the famous clay and limestone soils. The Vietti parcels are farmed for quality with an average density of 4,500 vines per hectare that reduces the yields to maximize concentration. For this bottling, all the different single vineyard blocks are vinified and aged separately with slightly different processes, as the winery says, to highlight the typical characteristics of each “terroir”. The Vietti Barolo was aged for about 30 months in a mix of large oak casks and smaller barriques before all of the selections are finally chosen to be blended together. Vietti is one of the best wineries in Italy, and Luca Currado, who has contributed even more to the success of Vietti in recent years, is making outstanding stuff, and his set of Barolo wines are some of the most collectable and desirable wines in the world, especially his Lazzarito and Rocche di Castiglione Barolo(s), but, as I’ve said before, you find quality throughout his collection. While 2010, 2013 and 2016 are very desirable years for this bottling, this 2019 is not far off and it looks set to get even better with 3 to 5 years.
($70 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive