Wine Article
2019 Vietti Barolo Castiglione
Last edited on 4/22/2023 by LindsayM
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2019 was, for the most part, a return to some normalcy for the region, foregoing the dramatic heat and drought of 2017, as well as the heavy rains of 2018, allowing for a long and steady season with a mid-late October harvest. The wines are adequately described as “high-toned” with "floral components”, "fine and firm tannins” and “vibrant acidity", making the 2019’s a more classic style of elegant and age-worthy Barolo, with the individuality of the various MGAs (Crus) being clearly visible. These should impress for their purity and lift at release, but with great potential for those wishing to invest in cellaring for a decade or three.
Grapes: 100% Nebbiolo
Winemaking: The grapes are selected from small vineyards spread in the Barolo region. The vines are between 7 and 40 years old, planted in a clay-limestone soil. Plants are trained with guyot method, with an average density of roughly 4500 units per hectare. All the different crus are vinified and aged separately with slightly different processes to underline the singular characteristics of each parcel and terroir. Fermentation occurs in stainless steel with daily cap submersion for extraction of flavour and colour.
Aging: The wine is aged for roughly 30 months in oak and barriques; all parcels are then carefully blended before bottling.
The 2019 Vintage
“Harvest ran from October 8 to 16, which is pretty typical for us,” Luca Currado explained at Vietti. “It was a nerve-wracking vintage, the kind of vintage that gives you a lot of grey hairs. We made a lot of decisions on pure instinct. Our longest macerations were on the Brunate (30 days) and Lazzarito (27 days). Still, we shortened macerations by about a week on the Brunate, Rocche and Villero because we did not want to extract any bitterness in the tannins.”
All the wines saw submerged cap maceration except the Monvigliero, where one of the two parcels did see submerged cap maceration while the other did not. Malolactic fermentation was done in cask, except for the Rocche, where the logistics of juggling casks of different sizes resulted in some of the wine doing the malolactic in neutral French oak.
Grapes: 100% Nebbiolo
Winemaking: The grapes are selected from small vineyards spread in the Barolo region. The vines are between 7 and 40 years old, planted in a clay-limestone soil. Plants are trained with guyot method, with an average density of roughly 4500 units per hectare. All the different crus are vinified and aged separately with slightly different processes to underline the singular characteristics of each parcel and terroir. Fermentation occurs in stainless steel with daily cap submersion for extraction of flavour and colour.
Aging: The wine is aged for roughly 30 months in oak and barriques; all parcels are then carefully blended before bottling.
The 2019 Vintage
“Harvest ran from October 8 to 16, which is pretty typical for us,” Luca Currado explained at Vietti. “It was a nerve-wracking vintage, the kind of vintage that gives you a lot of grey hairs. We made a lot of decisions on pure instinct. Our longest macerations were on the Brunate (30 days) and Lazzarito (27 days). Still, we shortened macerations by about a week on the Brunate, Rocche and Villero because we did not want to extract any bitterness in the tannins.”
All the wines saw submerged cap maceration except the Monvigliero, where one of the two parcels did see submerged cap maceration while the other did not. Malolactic fermentation was done in cask, except for the Rocche, where the logistics of juggling casks of different sizes resulted in some of the wine doing the malolactic in neutral French oak.