Vietti Barbera d’Asti ‘La Crena’ 2019

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Grapes: 100% Barbera

Winemaking: The Crena vineyard is located near the village of Agliano Terme, in a south-facing exposure, with a total surface of about 6 hectares. The grapevines are planted, using the Guyot trellis system, at an average density of 4.800 plants.
The grapes were, after a short period of cold-maceration, fermented in stainless steel tanks for about two weeks. During this period a lot of mechanical punching downs, délestage and many open-air pumping overs have been executed. After this, the wine macerates for another week on its skins and is then racked to oak barrels for malolactic fermentation.

Aging: Barriques, big oak vats and steel tanks for approximately 18 months.

Description: Intense, deep ruby color. Pronounced concentrated aroma of ripe raspberry and red cherry fruit, combined with spicy and mineral notes and a touch of vanilla and toast. Full bodied on the palate, quite rich, with lush fruit that is well balanced with the acidity, good integration of oak and a long lingering aftertaste.

For the First Time 3 New Wines

The Barbaresco Masseria (a trade name not a vineyard name) has been made many times. This is the first time it has been made with fruit from the fabled Roncaglie Cru. The Monvigliero was made with the help of Jeremy Seysses of Dujac, whole bunch expert, a technique often used in Verduno. The Cerquio is from a parcel acquired from Michele Chiarlo.

The Prologue

Luca & Elena have always stayed true to their convictions, and, history, acknowledging the wisdom of their family, and elder peers. While their Cru Barolos have brought them international fame, they have worked to protect patches of history for both their family and the region. Listen to Luca share his stories of retaining the Scarrone vineyard planted to Barbera when his father had planned to replant it to Nebbiolo, saving Arneis from being reconciled to a note in a wine book, and, more recently going back to Barbaresco, acquiring a parcel or Rabajà, and this becomes clear.

The drive for constant improvement continues with a parcel of Monvigliero now in the stables, whole bunch techniques are being applied with the help of Jeremy Seysses from Dujac. Meanwhile, Vietti started making Timorasso in 2018. Grapes for this white coming from vineyards located in Monleale in the Alessandria Province.

The 2018 Barolos are absolutely beautiful. There is not much more to say than that. Over the years, Luca Currado and Elena Penna have dialed in a style that works well for these vineyards. The Vietti Barolos are marked by intense fruit that is partly the result of bleeding the musts. The Barolos are done entirely in cask these days, which is a great complement to all of that intensity. Time on the skins ranged from three weeks or so for the Brunate and Lazzarito to as much as five weeks for the Ravera and Rocche. All of the wines were done with submerged cap maceration. “These were some of our longest macerations of the last three years,” Luca Currado explained.

Readers will note the addition of two new wines that have been thrilling since the first day I tasted them. The first is from a choice parcel in Cerequio Vietti acquired from Michele Chiarlo. The new Monvigliero is made in conjunction with Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac and has some whole cluster influence. As much as I hope stems don’t become a trend in Piedmont like French oak barrels did in the 1990s, there is little question whole clusters seem to work especially well in Monvigliero. These wines are simply brilliant. There is not much more to say than that.

Galloni

A Little About Vietti

Back in 2005, I spent some time at Vietti. Their winery sits in the castle atop Castiglione Falletto. It’s walls broken by slit windows for archers to defend the grounds. The escape tunnel leading from the castle to the plains below had been filled in only a few years prior to my visit. Somehow they’ve managed to modernise aspects of the winery carving into the rock without collapsing the ancient buildings surrounding it.

One of my earlier experience of Vietti was at the Australian Wine Research Institutes Advanced Wine Assessment Course. A blind bracket of 9 Nebbiolo’s was presented, Vietti’s Perbacco from 1998 and Brunate from 1996. The Brunate was superb. My notes from the tasting read “Very complex, great harmony, texture, rich, long, very together, perfumed, incredible layers and vibrancy.” The Perbacco excellent, particularly at 1/8th the price. “Great purity, balance, and poise. Supple with an excellent core of fruit and lovely floral notes.”

In many ways, little has changed. Perbacco, typically declassified Barolo, is the wine to crack while you’re waiting for your Barolo to mature!

Vietti intrigues me. Some of the best Barolo I have devoured have come from their winery. Watching the wines evolve over time, both the same vintage and across vintages has been fascinating. Modern technology at times pierced the tradition. Last year a vertical tasting going back to 1982 was fascinating. It again highlighted my growing consensus that the drinking window for good Barolo, from great years, starts at around 10 years and is right in the zone between 15 and 20 years.

Whilst Vietti have always produced more structured wines, the wines have always shown harmony and balance. The difficult 2011 year was perhaps a sign of a maturity and wisdom in the winemaking. They guided the fruit to a state of great harmony and balance in that year, pulling back on the structural elements to produce wines that were drinking superbly in late 2016.

In the last couple of years, I have devoured many more Vietti wines including a 1996 Villero Riserva and 1997 Rocche di Castiglione. Both would be in the top dozen Barolos I’ve every been lucky enough to devour!

Luca and Elenor’s wisdom has continued to build in the following years. Year after year the wines are getting better and better.

A couple of podcasts with the Vietti Crew

If you have some Italian there’s are a bit of fun too!

The 2019 Vintage

Vintage 2019 was a classic year, beginning slowly after a long, dry winter. Abundant rainfalls in April replenished soils with the mild and changeable conditions continuing into May, confirming a two-week delay compared to recent growth patterns. High temperatures in June accelerated growth, with conditions abating ahead of a
second heatwave at the end of July. Thereafter conditions remained mild albeit wet until harvest commenced in mid-September with the whites, and continued uninterrupted with dolcetto, barbera and finally nebbiolo in the second half of October. Yields were slightly below average.

Antonio Galloni, Vinous January 2022

Where in the World is Vietti?

The Krause Family bought Vietti a couple of years back, leaving, Luca and the Family in full control of production, hence the name below. The winery based in Castiglione Falletto now has additional vineyard sources in Barolo with Monvigliero in Verduno in the very North of the Barolo region, Rabajà & Roncaglie in the Barbaresco, and, Timorasso plantings in the Colli Tortonesi, the most eastern part of Piedmont. In addition, they have plantings in the Roero and Asti (the Barbera d’Asti Tre Vigne is a cracker).

This 3D flyover is Epic covering each of the communes you can see just how varied and extreme the aspect of each vineyard is and how in the space of a few metres just how dramatically the change.