1999 Barbaresco Asili

These two 1999 Barbarescos from Ceretto have turned out quite nicely. Although I generally consider the vintage stronger in Barolo than Barbaresco, the opposite is true for Ceretto's 1999s.

"The '98s are elegantly styled but less concentrated and powerful than the '99s," says Alessandro Ceretto, who has put his stamp on these wines since taking over winemaking duties in '99. "Two thousand was a very warm, dry year, similar to '97 but a bit less hot. The wines are fresher than the '97s but they're not like the '96s. The tannins are ripe but the acids fell during the warm late summer weather. Two thousand one may be great; the wines are more concentrated than the 2000s and they're getting sweeter and sweeter in the barrel. We started with lower yields than in 2000 but better acidity; a cool second half of September gave longer hang time, allowing the ripeness of the skins to catch up with the sugars." Ceretto emphasized that the house does not like alcoholic wines. "Acidity and pH levels are more important than high grape sugars, as is getting mature tannins. Fully ripe tannins give rounder wines with more flavor and aromatic complexity." He pointed out that Ceretto is doing much more serious green harvesting today than previously. "In 2001 we had 40% less crop than we would have had under the same conditions five years ago."

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.