Product information

Vietti ‘Perbacco’ Langhe Nebbiolo MAGNUM 2016

Nebbiolo from Barolo, Piedmont, Italy

$110

$105ea in any 3+
$100ea in any 6+
Closure: Cork
Because MAGNUMS ARE BETTER!

Description

2013, 2014 and 2015 have seen three very different years for Perbacco.

The 2016 is Luca’s favourite Perbacco! It’s a beautiful wine, lythe elegant & sophisticated Nebbiolo. A fine and feminine expression. A little dusty on the mouthfeel with a entrancing perfume. In a few years this will be a stunner!

We’ve got to remember the pedigree of this wine. The fruit comes from parcels in Bricco Boschis, Liste, Brunella, Crocetta, Pernanno, Fossati, Ravera in Novello and Scarrone. All stunning vineyards. That’s what makes it such a good benchmark for the Barolo’s from the same year.

Out of stock

Check out all of the wines by Vietti

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

From Vietti

Designation: Langhe DOC Nebbiolo

Grapes: 100% Nebbiolo

Winemaking: Vinification of grapes coming from different vineyards of Nebbiolo most of all included in the Barolo and from the last couple of vintages, from the Barbaresco area too.
Alcoholic fermentation lasts around 3/4 weeks. Each parcel is processed and aged separately until when they select the ones will be included for the blend of Perbacco or the ones that will keep ageing to become Barolo Castiglione (excluding the parcels from Barbaresco).

Aging: Total ageing is approximately 2 years. After malolactic done both in barrique and big Slavonian casks, the wine keeps ageing in oak for 2 years. Blending in steel tanks to follow prior bottling.

Description: Offers up generous fruit along with menthol, spices and hard candy, showing notable intensity while retaining an essentially mid-weight style. Strong, intense and powerful when young, complex and elegant with the ageing.

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 experiences 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!

Luca & Elena have always stayed true to their convictions, and, history, acknowledging the wisdom of their family, and elder peers. They have also 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 has released it’s first Timorasso, a wine that I am looking forward to trying. Grapes coming from vineyards located in Monleale in the Alessandria Province.

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+.

The Vietti family has been producing wine in Castiglione Falletto in the heart of Le Langhe in Piedmont for five generations, with 33 estate vineyards located across all 11 communes designated for the cultivation and production of Barolo, plus Roero for Arneis and Agliano Asti for Barbera and Moscato. In 2016 Vietti was purchased by the American Krause family, however current generation winemaker Luca Currado-Vietti continues to direct the Vietti Estate meticulously, together with his wife Elena Penna-Currado, to produce some of the finest and most representative wines of Le Langhe.

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 2016 Vintage

The 2016 vintage was one of the longest-lasting in recent years. Early winter was dry and mild, however from the end of February through March, the temperatures dropped with plenty of rain, providing good reserves of water. The “late” cold delayed the vegetative cycle, and spring proper also started wet with average daytime temperatures but low overnight minimums, helping retain good health. This phenological delay continued until the end of the summer, which began slowly but extended until the end of September. The white harvest ran from September 5th to 20th, with the wines showing excellent aroma and good acidity due to cooler summer temperature peaks. The red harvest began immediately after with Dolcetto, followed without a break to the middle of October with the Barbera and Nebbiolo. 2016 was a very good vintage for Dolcetto, but even more so for Barbera, which acquired excellent levels of sugar over a long period of stable conditions, while maintaining the varietal’s typically good acidity. Nebbiolo also achieved good phenological ripeness, a direct result of the perfect warm, sunny conditions of the second half of September. Whilst it is still early, the 2016 vintage wines display excellent balance, generous aromatics and great structure, and in some cases lower alcohols, compared to 2015. 2016 promises to be a vintage which will be talked about for a long time to come!

Where in the world does the magic happen?

Piazza Vittorio Veneto, 5, 12060 Castiglione Falletto CN, Italy

Barolo
Piedmont
Italy