2022 Bruna Grimaldi, Barolo DOCG “Camilla” Piemonte, Italy.
The bright ruby 2022 Camilla Barolo from Bruna Grimaldi is really up front, lush in ripe fruit and a wine to enjoy early and often, highlighting the open nature of the vintage with black raspberry, damson plum, dark cherry, strawberry and red currant fruits expressing themselves on the fine grained tannined full bodied palate. There’s classic Nebbiolo character here as well with woodsy notes, black licorice, hints of tobacco leaf, minty herbs and a subtle meatiness, along with some lengthy dark floral incense aromas lifting from the glass. Maybe not a wine, especially a Barolo, for a long-term ager, but absolutely delicious with a meal and nothing to complain about. The Grimaldi family has been in the Barolo business since 1957, but the modern version of this property really got started as a producer of fine wine with Bruna Grimaldi in 1990 and this label has gained a solid reputation over the last two decades. Now, winemaker Franco Fiorino, along with his son and daughter, crafts these wines with a passion for transparency and precision. I tasted this wine twice in recent months, and while I liked the 2021 Camilla a bit more, it is growing on me, along with a previously reviewed, very tasty 2024 Langhe Nebbiolo, and I absolutely recommend not passing up the Bruna Grimaldi offerings when you see them, there’s a ton of personally here and quality too.
The Bruna Grimaldi Baroli, as I’ve mentioned before, are made with a nod to the regions history with grapes that are harvested by hand and carefully sorted both in the vineyard and in the cellar before the clusters are all de-stemmed and gently crushed. Fiorini uses a temperature-controlled fermentation with, as he notes, a long skin contact maceration that lasts 20-30 days, sometimes employing a submerged cap for perfect extraction of color and structure. The primary fermentation of the must happens in a combination of stainless steel and concrete, after which the Nebbiolo (Barolo) gets aged and mainly matured in large Slavonian oak Botti for between 24 and 30 months, though this wine saw a touch of French wood. Before release the Grimaldi wines, again as I have noted in my prior reviews, see an extra bit of rest in bottle to allow integration and poise on release. These Grimaldi wine see all sustainable grown grapes, with organic farming now employed in all the vineyards the winery sources from, which has become very common in recent times to elevate the quality and purity of the wines. Again, as noted before, I have really enjoyed getting to know these Grimaldi wines over the last two years and they have become a go to favorite across the board, with the Langhe varietal offerings being top values and the cru Barolo bottlings being extremely compelling!
($60 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive