1999 Barolo Cerequio

Roberto Voerzio's 1999s were gorgeous when they were first released and are equally compelling today. There were plenty of challenges, including rain during the harvest, but Voerzio came through with a glorious set of wines.

This wine was tasted over dinner at Eleven Madison Park during the Charity Dinner of La Festa Del Barolo 2013.

Roberto Voerzio's philosophy is all about the vineyard, where he maintains what are by far the most dramatically low yields to be seen in the Barolo zone. Although Voerzio prefers barriques for aging his wines, vinification remains fairly traditional with fermentations lasting 15 or so days. After the alcoholic fermentation is complete the wines are racked into stainless steel for their malos, which Voerzio prefers for its cleanliness. The cellar is warmed to induce the malolactic fermentations and the malos are usually completed by the end of the fall. The wines are then moved into barriques where they age prior to being bottled without the aid of fining/filtration. Pure and expressive in a style that is neither modern nor traditional, these are wines that reflect the highly individual style of their maker as well as the profound voice of La Morra's finest sites. A bottle of the 1992 Cerequio, from a vintage most people would describe as abysmal, was still in great shape when last tasted in 2004. This set of 1999 Barolos is breathtaking. “The weather during 1999 was just perfect, very much like 1989,” says Voerzio. “As opposed to warm vintages like 1997 and 2000, where the summertime evening temperatures didn't go down too much, in 1999 we had greater alternation of temperatures and more stable weather overall. The resulting wines have higher acidities which will allow them to age extremely well. The wines are very structured and are just now beginning to open up a little.” Sadly, there are no 2002 Barolos from this estate.

While some critics of this domain fault Voerzio's very deeply colored wines for being overextracted and tannic, not to mention high in alcohol, I must confess to being genetically predisposed to Voerzio's bottles. Very low yields and complete phenolic ripeness are the keys to high quality here. Voerzio fancies the slightly jammy style of 2000 and 1997. He prunes to get just a kilo of grapes per vine, and thus, even in the large '97 harvest, crop levels were not excessive here. "A lot of '97s lacked acidity and structure due in part to the size of the crop," noted Voerzio. "Many of these wines are already in decline." Alcohol levels in the 1999s are in the 14.5% to 15% range, but there's little sign of heat in the aromas. Interestingly, Voerzio did his malolactic fermentations in barriques in '97, '98, '99 and '00 but went back to doing the secondary fermentation in stainless steel tanks in 2001. Voerzio, a longtime jazz lover, always has music blasting in the winery; on this occasion I tasted his bottled wines to the sound of Ennio Moricone's spaghetti western music - not a bad choice.