Tasting Note

The 2012 Barolo Cerretta is intriguing to taste next to the Francia, as it is much more shut down and affected by its recent bottling. Today the tannins are searing and large-grained, a characteristic this wine did not show from barrel. The clay-rich soils in Cerretta tend to give a broader style of Barolo compared to Francia, where limestone is prevalent, and that is very much what comes through today. Hints of dark red cherry, plum, smoke, leather, tobacco and licorice struggle to emerge from a wall of tannin. Today, the Cerretta is a brute, with little of the perfume and finesse it showed in cask. Readers will have to be patient. The only question is how much.

Score: 94+

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com, November 2016