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Home > Articles > News > Piedmont's Roberto Voerzio to Release 10-Year-Old Barolo

Piedmont's Roberto Voerzio to Release 10-Year-Old Barolo

Starting with the 2003 vintage, the riserva's first release will come in 2013

Jo Cooke
Posted: Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Roberto Voerzio, one of Piedmont’s star Barolo makers, has taken the designation "riserva" to a new level. His newest Barolo, a 2003 Barolo Fossati Case Nere 10 Anni Riserva, will be released after 10 years maturing in bottle in Voerzio’s winery.

Voerzio made 330 cases of the wine in 2003, 460 cases in 2004 and 415 cases in 2005. The 2003 should be available on the market in the United States in 2013. The wine comes from two of Voerzio’s Nebbiolo plots around the hilltop town of La Morra: a 3.7-acre plot in the Fossati vineyard, which borders on the La Serra and Case Nere vineyards, and a 2.5-acre plot in the Case Nere vineyard, situated in the middle of the Cerequio vineyard.

Anyone interested in buying the wine will have to wait out the 10-year stretch. Voerzio said that he would not be taking any orders for the wine until the second half of 2012, with delivery in 2013.

According to Voerzio, the first vintage was originally planned for 2002. But that summer turned out to be one of the worst in recent history for the region, with hail and storms ravaging crops and cool temperatures characterizing the entire growing season. The vineyards around La Morra were particularly hard hit and, in the end, Voerzio made no Barolo at all in 2002.

This late-release Barolo harks back to the '60s and '70s, when it was common for Barolo wines to be released after five or six, sometimes eight years. The Nebbiolo grape, the sole ingredient of Barolo, is characterized by high acidity and tannins, so it was thought that Barolo needed a long maturation in oak casks to make the wine approachable to consumers. Modern Barolos are generally more approachable earlier on, thanks to more refined winemaking techniques, and are usually released four years after the harvest.

"I suppose there is no real need for a 10-year-old riserva these days," said 54-year-old Voerzio. ”You could drink it now and enjoy it. I imagine drinking it in 2013, beside an open fire, with good company and good food. I guess it’s a bit of folly," he added, "but that’s what it’s all about."

With the new 10-year-old riserva, Voerzio now makes seven Barolos from plots in some of the best vineyards in the La Morra area: Barolo Brunate, Barolo La Serra, Barolo Cerequio, Barolo Rocche dell’Annunziata Torriglione and the two magnum-only Barolos, Vecchie Vite dei Capalot e delle Brunate Riserva and Sarmassa di Barolo. All are low-production, between 150 to 450 cases, and come from vines that produce only around 750 grams of fruit per plant, after extensive short pruning and bunch thinning. That's about half of what producers consider to be a top-quality-producing yield.

According to Voerzio, the price tag for the new riserva will be 50 percent more than that of his other Barolos from the 2003 vintage, to cover the cost of holding the wine in the winery. Voerzio’s latest Barolo releases from the 2001 vintage, such as Brunate, Cerequio and La Serra, retailed at $230 on release, which means that the shelf price of the new Riserva is likely to be well over the $300 mark.

In a recent blind tasting, Wine Spectator’s European bureau chief, James Suckling, rated the wine 92 points. The tasting note reads as follows: Round and fruity with velvety tannins and a full body. Cedar, cherry and spicy character. Long finish.

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