2000 Gabbro

Swiss born Fabio Chiarelotto, owner and winemaker of this boutique winery, says that it is easy to produce concentrated wines in the warm Mediterranean climate of the coast but more difficult to achieve elegance and finesse. The key to making great wine in this region, he says, "is to drop up to 60% of the fruit, use short macerations, employ natural yeasts, and bottle the wine without filtration." The hallmark of Chiarelotto's wines is indeed a blend of power and elegance. The barrel samples I tasted of the 2001 harvest of his production displayed the same compelling richness of fruit, vibrancy and aromatic complexity evident in the wines reviewed below, though these very promising wines seemed somewhat disjointed at the time of my visit.