Vietti - Barolo Ravera 2012
Vietti Description
The Vietti winery, managed by the family’s fifth generation, is based in the small medieval village of Castiglione Falletto, the heart of Piedmont’s famous “Langhe” wine region. Here the Currado family carefully and patiently handcrafts lauded wines that are the result of a unique combination of sun and soil.
Although the family has made wine for two centuries, the first Vietti-labeled wines were produced by third-generation Mario, who transformed the family’s farm into a grape growing winery. In 1952 Alfredo Currado married Mario’s daughter Luciana and made a name for Vietti’s single-vineyard Barbera and Barolo. He also put the native Piedmont varietal Arneis on the wine map. In 1990 Alfredo and Luciana’s son Luca joined the family business as winemaker after working at California's Simi Winery, Opus One, Long Vineyards and Bordeaux's Mouton-Rothschild. His innovative winemaking utilizes a unique combination of the modern and traditional. Luca’s focus on terroir is reflected in his careful cultivation and organic farming of more than 25 single vineyards. Recently he eliminated equipment that measures acid and tannin levels in favor of a more intuitive, and wine-specific approach, and also stopped publishing tasting notes, preferring that wine critics and drinkers apply their own perceptions and preferences to his wines.
Winemaking: From the single vineyard Ravera in Novello with 4.900 plants per hectare and between 5 and 60 years old. Ravera in Novello is a fabulous hill facing south-west, with a calcareous-clay ground. Total surface of 2.7 hectares. The production is of 20 hectoliters per hectare. 35 days in stainless steel vats, 5 of which are in cold pre-fermentation maceration, alcoholic fermentation, and then a long post-fermentation maceration at a temperature between 30/32 ° C (86-89.6°F). Daily air pumping-over using the old system called “submerged cap.” Slow malolactic fermentation in large casks almost until the end of the spring. The wine then stays more than a year on the lees and the Co2 produced during the malolactic fermentation in a reductive environment without sulfur.
- Aging: The wine is aged for 32 months in Slovenian oak casks. Bottled unfiltered on July 2015.
- Description: Intense garnet red color. Very classic and traditional with a robust structure and intense tannins. Bouquet still closed right now with slight hints of yeast. It opens slowly in the glass with hints of spice and menthol. In the final the powerful structure and concentration soften the tannins potential.
- Food Pairings: Game, red meats, cheeses
James Suckling: 96 Points
The tar and asphalt comes through here with ripe plum and berry character too. Full body, tight and muscular. Deep and thought-provoking. Give it two or three years to open but already impressive to taste.
Vinous Media: 96 Points
The 2012 Barolo Ravera is once again a star. Finely cut and chiseled throughout, the 2012 boasts striking precision and nuance. Rose petal, chalk, white pepper, cranberry and pomegranate burst forward in a brilliant, exceptionally polished Barolo built on pure, sculpted elegance. Over the last few years Vietti has done a tremendous job in taming the intense Ravera tannins while preserving all of the focus that makes the wines from this site so alluring. The Ravera has been fabulous on the two occasions I have tasted it so far.
Wine Advocate: 94 Points
The 2012 Barolo Ravera is a beautiful wine and a fully-loaded Nebbiolo. The wine offers thick lines and deep concentration with seamless integration even at this very young stage in its evolution. The bouquet is redolent of dried cherry, spice, tar and tilled earth. This is a wine of utmost elegance, grace and nobility. Past vintages have appeared firmly closed when tasted too young, but the 2012 vintage is more relaxed and unclenched than expected.