1997 Barbaresco Asili

The Ceretto Barolos and Barbarescos are considerably improved in the last decade, due in large part to more serious green harvesting, which, according to export manager Federico Ceretto, has reduced production from 8,000-9,000 bottles per hectare to barely 5,000. The house Barolos and Barbarescos remain on their skins for 24 to 28 days, including up to two weeks following the end of the sugar fermentations. Actually, says winemaker Alessandro Ceretto, "we don't just pick on alcohol and acid levels but look for riper anthocyanins, so we really need less maceration than before. The biggest difference now is in the riper tannins we get." x000D x000D Vinification takes place in temperature-controlled vertical stainless steel fermenters that perform automatic pump-overs for five minutes every two hours to keep the cap wet. A delestage a process whereby the juice is drained from the tank, then poured back over the solids] is done every two days to break up the cap. These methods result in less contact between the skins and the air, and therefore lower levels of volatile acidity. Ceretto's Barolos spend 30 months in wood, the Barbarescos 18 or 19, followed by at least a year of further aging in bottle prior to release. I tasted the following wines at Ceretto's vinification facility for Barolo in Castiglione Falletto, on top of which sits a giant glass cube that serves as a tasting room and provides a 360-degree view of the best Barolo hilltop sites.