Domenico Clerico

Armed with a big, booming voice and a healthy sense of humor, Domenico Clerico is without question one of Piedmont's most colorful characters. Despite his successes Clerico remains a simple, down-to-earth man who has little time for the pretentiousness and arrogance of others. Stories abound about visitors who have been shown the door here. My favorite of these regards a journalist who proclaimed to be an “expert” taster. Clerico served the journalist three wines and asked him to comment on them. After the journalist waxed poetically about the differences in terroir and micro-climate in the wines, Clerico showed him the corks....three bottles of the same vintage of Ciabot Mentin Ginestra. With that, the appointment was concluded. Needless to say I was a bit wary on my most recent visit when three glasses of 2005 Barolo were placed in front of me, fearing I might meet the same fate! Fortunately it was not to be....

Readers who enjoy this producer's wines will not want to miss the 1999 Barolos, which are among the best of the vintage. Those who aren't yet familiar with this producer's wines might want to check out these excellent releases, as they represent the highest expression of this vigneron's craft. Although I generally find the Ciabot Mentin Ginestra to be the most complete and expressive wine here, in 1999 all three Barolos are exceptional and merit close attention. I can't recommend these wines highly enough. Lastly, 2006 should have seen the release of the 2001 Percristina, but Clerico has decided to give the wine an additional year of bottle age as he finds the wine to still be quite hard. Having tasted the 2001 Percristina twice in the last year, it seems like a wise decision. “To me 1999 and 2000 are very much like 1989 and 1990,” explains Clerico. “In the beginning everyone was chasing the 1990s. It took a while for peopl

e to realize just how great the 1989s were. The reality is that Nebbiolo is a difficult wine to understand. Each vintage has its own expression and it is often very hard to know how wines will eventually turn out. In today's world there is a rush to judge wines, and as a result sometimes we tend to undervalue certain vintages. There is no doubt 1999 is a great vintage, but it remains overshadowed by 2000, which is by all means a beautiful vintage, but 1999 is more ‘Piedmontese.' The wines are fresher and have slightly higher acidities, something that is also quite characteristic

of our Monforte terroir. In retrospect, perhaps we should have kept our wines in the cellar an additional year to give them time to mature a little more.” “We had excellent conditions during 1999 with the alternation of temperatures that are ideal for the maturation of Nebbiolo. The resulting grapes were healthy and thick-skinned. Once the fruit was in the cellar we did roughly 14 days of fermentation/maceration for the Ciabot and Pajana and 16 days for the Percristina, all in rotary fermenters. The wines then went into barrique, of which roughly 90% new, where they did their malos. I did not rack the wines until the following year, preferring to leave them on their lees for about eight months. Ciabot spent 24 months in oak, while Pajana and Percristina saw an additional two months of barrique.”

For 2002 Clerico has produced one Barolo which is a blend of the best fruit he was able to salvage from his plots. Like many producers he felt the market would simply not accept single-vineyard wines in this vintage. Overall production was down sharply and was about one- third of normal levels. “We worked diligently to get the best fruit we could in 2002,” says Clerico. “We left three to four bunches of fruit per plant and those were trimmed to allow the fruit to mature as well as was possible under the circumstances. The grapes were beautiful although the seeds obviously struggled to ripen. We did a maceration and fermentation of 10-12 days, which is slightly less than usual. I was surprised by the intensity of the color of the 2002s, in fact my 2002 Barolo has more color than my 2003s. After fermentation the wines went into barrique where they did their malos and completed their aging. Naturally I used less new oak in 2002 than usual. Prior to bottling I decided to blend the wines from my three vineyards into a single Barolo, although if I had it to do all over again I would have bottled my single-vineyard wines. When I taste my older Barolos from past vintages that I consider inferior to 2002 I usually find they have held up quite well.” To prove his point Clerico opened bottles of his 1983 and 1984 Ciabot Mentin Ginestra which were tasted alongside the 2002. The 1983 and 1984 show just how much a quality-minded producer can accomplish even in poor vintages.