2019 Roberto Voerzio Barolo "Cerequio", Piedmont, Italy
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ABOUT THIS WINE
100% Nebbiolo. South facing hills, 500 grames per plant yields, end of September harvest, fermentation in stainless steel. Aged 2 years in barrels/casks, 8 months in steel, and 8 months in bottle.
A green bowl of vines at the heart of La Morra’s soaring, nearly-2-mile-long hill, Cerequio carries a unique story of Barolo in each vine on its parcel. Not only is this one of the warmest vineyards in the commune, it holds five times the magnesium of any other Barolo cru at all. This shifts the "tar and roses" to "cassis, eucalyptus, and mint" in the aromas. Robeto himself says of the vineyard, "The principle attribute of Cerequio that has always fascinated me is the aromatics, in particular the smell of cherries. Those small cherries that I was telling you about that are wild … they become very dark, they’re very sweet, and they taste almost like jam.”
ABOUT THIS PRODUCER
Roberto was born and grew up in a multigenerational family of farmers in La Morra, Everyday working and observing the land, Roberto saw the possibility that La Morra has some of the best vineyards in the world to produce some of the greatest wines in the world. In 1986, starting with 2 hectares he founded the winery in pursuit of this possibility. Through his relationship with the local community of farmers and families, he learned about the sites that had the most potential to deliver pure expression of Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto and slowly acquired ownership. Today, Roberto has 35 hectares of vines, of which 22 are his own that include parcels located in 3 Gran Crus, Brunate, Cerequio, and Rocche del’Annunziata, and 13 rented. All in La Morra.
La Morra is one of the oldest villages in Langhe; There are official plans which already in the 1400s were showing the area to be one of the most prestigious crus. Though his family was never able to hold property in this area, Roberto, piece by piece, was able to put together 15 hectares and now owns a parcel of each of those gran crus. The beauty is that he bought those vineyards from people who already had 60, 70, or 80 year-old vines in place. So in his wines he is telling a story which goes behind 100-120 years. This is the magic.
“One of the central tenets of the Voerzio approach,” says Antonio Galloni, “is a steadfast belief that the relationship between low yields and high quality is always linear.”
Roberto founded his philosophy on 3 major pillars:
- Prime Location
- Natural Farming
- Unique maintenance of the vineyards - low yields, extreme selection on the plants (green harvest) , high density plantation
The high density plantation allows Roberto to reduce the production per plant drastically yet still respect normal standards of quality. During a normal vintage the average production of one of his Nebbiolo plants is 500 grams, 1 kg per plant the average production for the dolcetto , barbera , nebbiolo and barolo La morra which are still produced following the same philosophy. When cutting the grape in harvest, the wine is made in cellar. No substance that could change the characteristic of the grape is used.