2019 Barbaresco, Asili, Ceretto, Piedmont, Italy

2019 Barbaresco, Asili, Ceretto, Piedmont, Italy

Product: 20198234078
Prices start from £141.50 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2019 Barbaresco, Asili, Ceretto, Piedmont, Italy

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Available for delivery or collection. Pricing includes duty and VAT.

Description

This wine comes from Ceretto’s 1.2 hectares in Asili, located at the highly favoured sunny top of the hill. It has plenty of finesse, with more energy than the Bernadot. The silty soil imbues the wine with alluring savoury aromas, but the palate is wound in, tight and detailed – elements amplified by the style of the vintage.

Drink 2025 - 2045

Berry Bros. & Rudd

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Critics reviews

Antonio Galloni, Vinous95/100

The 2019 Barbaresco Asili is ample, creamy and resonant. All the signatures of this site come through in a Barbaresco of breadth and resonance. Even so, the 2019 remains light on its feet. There is plenty of depth and persistence, but it is expressed in more of an understated manner. It's a beautiful wine.

Tasting the 2019 and 2018 Barbarescos side by side is a great way to gain greater insight into the personalities of these two vintages. The 2019s are deeper and richer in feel, while the 2018s are more forward and also lighter in structure. Not surprisingly, production of the 2018 vineyard-designates was quite a bit lower than normal because of selection. Alessandro Ceretto generally gives the Barbarescos 20-30 days on the skins. Malos are done in barrique, after which the wines spend 18 months in cask.

Drink 2025 - 2039

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (February 2022)

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Jancis Robinson MW18/20

Barbaresco. Lustrous mid-ruby. A deep perfumed red-fruit nose with a minty edge and still youthful. Compact, almost racy cranberry followed by sweet raspberry and firm tannins. Elegant and potent at the same time. Long, lingering finish that is still a little compact. Serious stuff and in need of further ageing.

Drink 2024 - 2034

Walter Speller, JancisRobinson.com (June 2022)

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James Suckling94/100

Pretty nose of rose hips, raspberries, flowers and cloves. It’s medium-bodied with a fine, firm tannin frame and vibrant acidity. Precise and clear-cut. Tight for now. From organically grown grapes. 

Try in 2024

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (October 2022)

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Decanter95/100

Since around 2005/2006, ageing switched from 100% barrique to a mix of both barrique and botti grandi. The estate works biodynamically and is certified organic, with 5.6 hectares in Barbaresco. It's a big estate - with 170 hectares - but displays a precise and crafted winemaking style. Asili, in my opinion, remains the most representative wine of the Ceretto family. 

Focused on the elegance of the MGA, this shows fresh watermelon fruit to the fore, with poised, restrained strawberry, dried flowers and liquorice root wrapped up in ripe tannins and lifted acidity. Concentration, weight and balance make this a wine for the long haul. Don't miss it.

Drink 2022 - 2039

Aldo Fiordelli, Decanter.com (January 2022)

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About this WINE

Ceretto

Ceretto

This family-run business was founded by Riccardo Ceretto in 1937, principally as a négociant in Alba. He was joined by his sons Bruno and Marcello in the 1960s. Wanting to make and sell their own wines, they began to buy premium land in Barolo and Barbaresco and were among the very first in the region to see the potential of single-vineyard wines. Bruno’s children, Federico and Roberta, and Marcello’s, Alessandro and Lisa, joined in the 1990s. After a period of change and experimentation, a particular style emerged in 2010, utilising shorter skin contact, and a mix of barrique and small botte for a supple but precise expression of Nebbiolo. The family are also involved in various artistic and heritage projects, including the rejuvenation of the famous Piedmontese hazelnuts and two restaurants in Alba: La Piola and the three-star Michelin Piazza Duomo.

In recent years, Ceretto’s winemaking style has been more relaxed, and it is interesting to see how this plays in a vintage like 2019. The 2018 wines were undeniably very successful, with the heady fruit of the year brilliantly captured and expressed. In 2019, that immediacy is more muted, but where Ceretto’s house style does succeed is in working finesse into the tannins. Many producers reported that their 2019s were slow to evolve once in barrel or bottle, and it was only towards the end of their time in wood that the quality of the vintage began to shine. That is not the case here. The purity and linear expression of the vintage has been in place for Ceretto’s wines right from the start. These are more intellectual wines than the 2018s, and their qualities are self-evident.

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Barbaresco

Barbaresco

The Piedmontese DOCG zone of Barbaresco is responsible for producing some of Italy’s finest wines. It occupies the same region and uses the same grape (Nebbiolo) as its bigger brother Barolo, but is a third of the size (only 640 hectares versus Barolo’s 1,700 hectares). It is also 50 years younger than Barolo, having produced wine labelled Barbaresco since 1890.

Barbaresco earned its DOCG after Barolo in 1980, largely thanks to the efforts of Angelo Gaja. The soils are lighter here than in Barolo – both in colour and weight – and more calcareous. The slopes are also less favourably situated and (relatively speaking) yield earlier-maturing yet extremely elegant wines that require less oak ageing (normally one year in oak plus six months in bottle). The appellation’s key districts are Barbaresco, Treiso, Neive and Alba.

Recommended producers: Cigliuti, Gaja, Marchesi di Gresy

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Nebbiolo

Nebbiolo

Nebbiolo is the grape behind the Barolo and Barbaresco wines and is hardly ever seen outside the confines of Piedmont. It takes its name from "nebbia" which is Italian for fog, a frequent phenomenon in the region.

A notoriously pernickety grape, it requires sheltered south-facing sites and performs best on the well-drained calcareous marls to the north and south of Alba in the DOCG zones of Barbaresco and Barolo.

Langhe Nebbiolo is effectively the ‘second wine’ of Piedmont’s great Barolo & Barbarescos. This DOC is the only way Langhe producers can declassify their Barolo or Barbaresco fruit or wines to make an early-drinking style. Unlike Nebbiolo d’Alba, Langhe Nebbiolo can be cut with 15% other red indigenous varieties, such as Barbera or Dolcetto.

Nebbiolo flowers early and ripens late, so a long hang time, producing high levels of sugar, acidity and tannins; the challenge being to harvest the fruit with these three elements ripe and in balance. The best Barolos and Barbarescos are perfumed with aromas of tar, rose, mint, chocolate, liquorice and truffles. They age brilliantly and the very best need ten years to show at their best.

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