Offered APR 21th, 2017

We’ve recently been sampling some great old vintages of Ceretto, Fontanafredda, and Pio Cesare – three producers that rated highly with Italian wine expert Sheldon Wasserman when he reviewed them in his seminal work, Italy’s Noble Red Wines.

From a restaurant cellar, this collection includes several vintages that are drinking well now – please see below, as well as more tasting notes from collectors on CellarTracker.

As we’ve been gathering data from others with much experience drinking these old wines, we aim to present you with a reliable mix of producers and vintages that we can find from sources with good provenance.

“The Ceretto brothers, Bruno and Marcello, administrator and winemaker respectively, are the proprietors of Casa Vinicola Ceretto in Alba.  In the early years they bought the grapes for their wines.  Later, in order to control more closely the quality of the grapes as well as the wine, they set about acquiring prime vineyard land in Barolo and Barbaresco.  In the 1970s, they added Bricco Asili in Barbaresco and Bricco Rocche in Castiglione Falletto of their holdings. We think few would dispute that the Ceretto wines are among the best in the Langhe.  We were struck by the depth, the balance, and the style of the wines as well as the consistency maintained even in some of the lesser years.” – Sheldon Wasserman, Italy’s Noble Red Wines (1991)

“Fontanafredda bottles Barolos from 9 crus.  Vigna Bianca has an austere nature and is regarded for its bouquet.  Galleretto is noted for its body and structure.  Gattinera is austere in its youth, requiring age to bring it around.  This last cru is also a source of pinot grapes for their especially fine metodo champenoise spumante, Gattinera brut.  La Rosa is perhaps their most noted cru, not necessarily because it’s the best, but because it has been the most widely distributed.  Barolo La Rosa is perhaps the most robust of the wines and consequently requires aging to show its quality.  The Barolos of La Delizia and La Villa are ready the soonest and San Pietro shortly afterward.  The San Pietro also ages well and is regarded for its bouquet.  The Lazzarito Barolo is the slowest to mature and, not surprisingly, ages very well.” – Sheldon Wasserman, Italy’s Noble Red Wines (1991)

“At Pio Cesare they don’t believe in making a single-vineyard Barolo.  They feel that such a wine would lack what they consider the traditional character of Barolo.  They believe that the differences among the subvarieties of nebbiolo are not significant, but that it is the exposure and the soil that are the determining factors in the character of the wine, particular the soil.  Pio Boffa, who produces the Pio Cesare wines along with his father, Giuseppe Boffa, and winemaker Paolo Fenocchi, points out that the grapes from Serralunga d’Alba give their Barolo body, structure, and complexity; the nebbiolo of this area produces wines big in body and rich in tannin.  The wines of Castiglione Falletto, he notes, are soft and fruity; they add perfume and finesse to the blend.  The Barolos of Monforte are in the middle, with more body than the wines of Castiglione Falletto and more finesse than those of Serralunga d’Alba; and the wine of La morra provides delicacy.  They combine the grapes from the various areas in the fermentation vats to produce a house-style Barolo.” – Sheldon Wasserman, Italy’s Noble Red Wines (1991)