2016 Azelia Barolo Cerretta

The newest single-vineyard Barolo to be released by this estate in celebration of its centennial anniversary, the Azelia 2016 Barolo Cerretta offers a rich and slightly sweet quality of primary fruit with cherry, wild plum and summer fig. Like many wines from Serralunga d'Alba, the bouquet tends to unwind in broad, sweeping motions instead of the quickly paced crescendo of high notes that you get in Castiglione Falletto, for example. This wine washes over the palate with rich textural fiber (with very elegant tannins) and an open-knit fabric of dark cherry and blackberry aromas all framed by earthy tones of black truffle and iron ore. This wine represents the efforts of three decades of hard work. Luigi Scavino's father had long dreamed of making a Barolo from Cerretta, but the family waited 30 years to have old, well-established vines. Like the other Baroli from Azelia, fermentations see submerged cap, and skin maceration times are long, up to 60 days. The wine ages in large oak casks for 30 months. Only 3,600 bottles were made of this debut cru.

The 2016 Barolo Cerretta brings together all the best elements of the Azelia house style. Powerful, dense and dark, the Cerretta has so much going for it. Black cherry, plum, lavender, spice, menthol, sage and licorice all flesh out in the glass. Rich and potent in feel with tremendous nuance, the Cerretta is flat-out stunning. The Scavinos started by renting this parcel in 1995 and they re-planted it in 1996. For many years, all of this fruit went into the straight Barolo. Now, 25 years later, the estate has finally released its first single-vineyard Barolo off this site, and it is a stunner.