Pio Cesare Barolo DOCG
Piemonte, Italy
Vintage:2016 (Past)
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Reviews
Wine Spectator
91 Points
November 15, 2020, Bruce Sanderson
“Lean and taut, showing macerated cherry, eucalyptus and iron flavors. It's ripe and the tannins are well-integrated. Just a bit shy on the finish today, but a year or two in the bottle should take care of that. Best from 2022 through 2036.”
Wine Enthusiast
96 Points, Editors' Choice
September 1, 2020, Kerin O'Keefe
“Enticingly fragrant, this wine offers alluring scents of iris, rose, perfumed berry and wild herb. It's full-bodied and elegant, delivering crushed raspberry, juicy Marasca cherry, star anise and orange zest set against a backbone of taut, fine-grained tannins. Bright acidity keeps it balanced and lends density. Drink 2024-2036.”
The Wine Advocate
95 Points
July 23, 2020, Monica Larner
“Traditionalists happily fall back to this wine from Pio Cesare. This historic winery, now in its fifth generation and located within the city limits of Alba, takes care to shape a classic interpretation without too many extra bells or whistles. The fact that Pio Cesare now has the flashier Barolo Ornato and the newly created Barolo Mosconi, only gives more importance to this wine. The Pio Cesare 2016 Barolo offers deep, dark fruit with a mingling of spice, smoke, tar and smoke. This wine represents a blend of fruit from five comuni, or villages: Cascina Ornato, La Serra and Briccolina in Serralunga d'Alba; Gustava and Garretti in Grinzane Cavour; Roncaglie in La Morra; Ravera in Novello; and starting with the 2015 vintage, Mosconi in Monforte d’Alba. An ample 60,000 bottles were produced.”
JamesSuckling.com
95 Points
July 9, 2020, James Suckling
“Pretty sweetness and ripeness to this with cherries, dried strawberries and chocolate. It’s full-bodied with round, firm tannins. Very long and intense. A little tight now. Complex and subtle at this stage. Give it two or three years to come around. Try after 2022.”
Jeb Dunnuck
94 Points
July 7, 2020, Jeb Dunnuck
“The 2016 Barolo reveals a deep purple hue as well as impressive black cherry, blackberry, crushed violets, and toasted spice, with plenty of minerality developing with time in the glass. Medium-bodied, rich, and beautifully textured on the palate, this balanced, straight-up gorgeous Barolo will benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and cruise for two decades in cold cellars.”
Decanter
92 Points
April 13, 2020, Stephen Brook
“Widely sourced, from family-owned vineyards in Novello and Grinzane Cavour as well as more celebrated villages, this Barolo shows admirable opulence on the nose, with sweet cherry fruit but no trace of jamminess. Firm and spicy, it displays excellent vigour and presence, and shows more weight and perhaps better balance than the Barbaresco, and good acidity gives persistence and refinement. Long.”
Overview
The Pio Cesare family’s unique winemaking method stresses minimal intervention to produce wines of particularly supple flavor expression. A ceaseless devotion to the individuality of each of the region’s wines informs Pio Cesare's choices in the cellar: shorter maceration, separate lot fermentation, judicious selection for barrel and large cask aging, and bottling schedules determined by the ideal structure of each wine. This allows Pio Cesare to craft wines of varying weight, ageability and drinkability as determined by the vineyard rather than market fashion.
Year after year, the wines of Pio Cesare are recognized for their consistency and regional expression. From world-class Barolo and Barbaresco to crisp Cortese and sweet Moscato, the wines of Pio Cesare offer exceptional quality and variety.
Winemaking
The grapes are sourced from family-owned vineyards in Serralunga d’Alba (Ornato), Grinzane Cavour (Gustava), La Morra (Roncaglie), Barolo Novello (Ravera), and Monforte d’Alba (Mosconi). Vinification takes place in stainless steel tanks, with skin contact for about 20 days. The wine is aged in mid-toasted French oak for three years: 70 percent in 20 to 50 hectoliter casks; 30 percent in barriques.
Tasting Notes
This vintage has extraordinary elegance, complexity and character. Silky and intense bouquet. Full body, great structure, right tannins, incredible ageing potential, precise and classic Nebbiolo style. The wine has sweet and very elegant tannins. It still needs one year in bottle for the best maturation.
Harvest Notes
2016 was characterized by a very long-lasting vegetative cycle, with a slow but regular ripening season. Spring begun with abundant rainfalls, which provided the vines with adequate water levels. Summer, which started late, lasted until the end of September with mild temperatures. Thanks to this very long vegetative window and a good water supply, the grapes achieved a complete and healthy ripening, producing remarkably well-balanced wines with excellent aromas and great structure. An exceptional and classic vintage, very similar in style to 2013.
Technical Information
Varietals: 100% Nebbiolo