2020 Barbaresco, Bernadot, Ceretto, Piedmont, Italy

2020 Barbaresco, Bernadot, Ceretto, Piedmont, Italy

Product: 20208109958
Prices start from £104.50 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2020 Barbaresco, Bernadot, Ceretto, Piedmont, Italy

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Description

Ceretto’s Bernadot vineyard is found just below the village of Treiso, on the highest area where the slopes are incredibly steep and completely south-facing, resulting in a wine full of tension and complexity. The soil is similar to Serralunga in Barolo but with more clay to round out those classic sandy tannins. 

The nose has tobacco spice and hints of lavender, while the palate has both incredibly concentrated dried fruits and a fresh salinity, culminating in a grippy, savoury finish. A big wine that shines in the juicy 2020 vintage, built to improve for decades to come. 

Drink 2026 - 2040

Katie Merry, Assistant Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd (April 2023)

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Critics reviews

Jane Anson93/100
A delicious Barbaresco from Alessandro Ceretto, fully showcasing that unparalleled Italian ability to deliver a juicy wine that is both delicate and intense, and so food-friendly. Mandarin peel, raspberry, red cherry, fennel, fine and delicate tannins, welcoming and mouthwatering. First time on the Place for this 4.84ha vineyard in Treiso, and it's one to seek out.

Drink 2023 to 2034

Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux (March 2023) Read more
Decanter94/100

Beautiful florality and almost baked cherry sweets - cherry drops - on the nose, rose, Caramac bars, vanilla, white chocolate and lavender - an infusion of sweet, fruit and floral elements. Statuesque on the palate, ripe and massy, but so well textured - like crushed velvet with a powdery and also fleshy aspect to the tannins so they expand and fill the mouth and leave a lingering chalky, powdery salinity on the tongue and cheeks. Round, ample yet defined and detailed, so much going on but with no one element overpowering another building to a really impressive overall impression. Acidity is beautiful, and there are cola flecks that give the freshness and savoury touch. The power shines at the end where the tannins constrict and just grip the final flavour, so you know this is a big wine with long ageing potential. A delicious addition to the Place de Bordeaux this year.

Drinking window: 2023 - 2033

Georgina Hindle, Decanter (Feb 2023)

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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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