Vietti Barolo Riserva ‘Villero’ 2013

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Each release being celebrated with a unique artist label just like the wines of Château Mouton-Rothschild. The 2013 Villero features another striking artwork as the label, this time by Alessandro Piangiamore.

This is the very pinnacle of Vietti’s incredible brace of wines!

In 2020 Vietti are releasing just the 14th vintage of their Barolo Riserva Villero from the 2013 vintage, with the label another striking work of art, this time by Alessandro Piangiamore.

Vietti have just under one hectare in Villero with an average vine age of 41 years. Produced only in exceptional years, the wine is aged extensively in large Slavonian oak botti and then in bottle

Villero is a large Cru within the Commune of Castiglione Falletto, which is noted for the structure and excellence of its Nebbiolo wines (22.07 Ha with 93% planted to Nebbiolo) divided amongst 10 producers and all uniformly exposed south/south-west at around 250 to 350 metres above sea level on white and blue marl soils typical to the Commune.

Vietti have a long held tradition of specially-designed original art works as labels. Initially in 1974 Luca’s parents Alfredo Currado and Luciana Vietti engaged specific artists for several of their wines, however since the presentation of the 1982 Barolo Villero in 1988, this practice has been reserved exclusively for the Barolo Riserva Villero. The print run is the same as the number of bottles produced, and the first hundred labels are signed by the artist. Each work is only used once, just for the wine of that vintage.

Grapes variety: 100% Nebbiolo, Michet Subvariety

Vineyard Located within the village of Castiglione Falletto: the Villero vineyard faces south/southwest with Vietti owning a little less than one hectare. The vines have an avarage age of 44 years and the density is 4,000 vines per hectare. The grapes were harvested on October 17th, yielding about 53 hectoliters of wine per hectare.

Soil: Moderately clay and compact, with evident white and blue marlstone.

Winemaking: After alcoholic fermentation in steel tanks at a temperature of between 28 and 32 degrees Celsius, the wine macerated on the skins for a total of 27 days. It was then transferred immediately into 30 hl Slavonian oak casks for malolactic fermentation and ithe subsequent aging. It was bottled without filtration on June 22nd, 2016. Total production for the 2010 vintage was 3,986 standard bottles, 100 magnums, 5 double magnums.

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 andvibrancy.” 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. The Villero Riserva is in the rare class of Barolo that will push this window out to 30 years+.

Whilst Vietti have always produced more structured wines, they have never shifted to the overt new oak regimes of the likes of Clerico. The wines have always shown harmony and balance.

2013 vintage – Le Langhe, Piedmont

The 2013 harvest will be remembered as “vintage” in the sense that on average picking operations began 15 days later than over the last 10 years, and ended early in November with the last bunches of nebbiolo.

In particular, the beginning of the vine’s vegetative cycle was conditioned by a sluggish start to Spring, and low average temperatures in March and April. The period between April and throughout the month of May featured plenty of rainfall (210 mm on average, with a total of 18 days of rain). This created more than a few difficulties for growers, who found themselves facing the risks associated with fungal attacks right from the outset. Despite this, those who managed to take the correct agronomic action were able to solve the problem at its inception, limiting the damage. The start of the campaign heralded a season which proved to be anything but easy: every ounce of experience would be needed to achieve a harvest which in the end produced generally unexpectedly positive results considering how the vintage had looked from a climatic point of view. In June, the conditions linked to atmospheric events gradually improved, leading into a highly positive July for the physiology of the vine, partly due to greater meteorological stability. Flowering took place as per normal in the second ten days of June, followed by good berry set. To sum up, we can say that despite a very positive summer and good weather between the beginning of véraison and ripening, the vine was unable to completely make up the delay in vegetative development accumulated over the previous months. A final consideration in general terms concerns production: the good berry set combined with the availability of water benefited the development of the clusters, which were larger, heavier and more compact on average than in recent vintages.

The wines made from white berry grapes can count on a big aromatic framework and excellent acidity in developing their bouquets to the full. The sugars are slightly lower than in recent vintages, and as a result the alcohol content will also be lower, but this is no bad thing, considering in particular the tasting properties sought after in white wines.

For the Dolcetto-based wines the vintage was positive. Most grapes proved to be sound, and with excellent values for being able to develop fresh, fragrant wines. There will be no lack of top class product in what are historically the finest growing areas, where wines can be made that will express themselves at their best after medium ageing.

Barbera is without question the variety in the area of the Langa and Roero that was most affected by the vintage’s particular climatic pattern. Most probably the not overly high daytime temperatures and the shorter period of intense heat than in recent years meant that physiologically there was less deterioration in the fixed acidity, producing medium-sound grapes with an average sugar content but high acidity.

Nebbiolo is the variety that benefited the most towards the end of the season, when it was able to enjoy the high temperatures recorded in September and October. These were perfect for allowing it to develop to the full the phenolic profile that makes it stand out, and produce wines suited to ageing. The beginning of the season was conditioned for the Nebbiolo grapes too though by the climate, delaying the bud break. This delay was not made up for in the summer, but from August through to the harvest the climate was perfect for phenolic synthesis, with hot, bright days accompanied by cool nights, especially from mid-September on.

Overall the season was distinguished by two main trends: a difficult start, followed by a second period that rescued the situation, and meant that with the particularly calm climate in the months of September and October harvesting operations could be delayed with very satisfactory results.

In conclusion, we can say that for all our grape-varieties it was a demanding vintage to manage in the field, in terms of yields as well. What undoubtedly made the difference was making the right choice on when to take action on the basis of climate, variety and pedoclimatic conditions. Wherever green harvesting and stripping of the leaves were carried out at the right time and in the right way, well-structured, long-lasting wines will be obtained to make 2013 an excellent vintage.

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 in the Barbareco, 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).

Barolo MGA 360º offers free access to the Villero Cru… Check it out!

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.