Barolo Riserva DOCG Villero 2012 Vietti

This is the 13th edition that Vietti has come out with, over the span of 38 years, of this stunning Riserva, a wine that ultimately is produced only about once every four years or so. It was not made after the previous harvest, in 2011. The recent editions have been nothing short of spectacular, earning 100-point scores in both 2007 and 2009 and 99 points in its latest appearance, 2010. It's a series that has set the bar extraordinarily high, and this 2012 Barolo Riserva Villero is a little less exciting in comparison. However, the wine holds its own as one of the most beautiful in the entire appellation and one of the best in the somewhat lackluster vintage. Balsamic and truffle notes pepper the palate of this handsome Barolo, but it's just really hard to reproduce that magic, release after release, for a wine regularly expected to sell at several hundred dollars apiece. Some 3,300 bottles of this vintage were made.

I tasted these wines just before lunch hour. Luca Currado always prepares two bottles of each sample for my tasting. One was opened at 10 a.m. (so about three hours earlier), and the second was opened just prior to being poured into the glass. The notes published here represent an edited version with reflections and comments from both bottles. Vietti likes to release his wines when they are in a more reductive state, so this two-bottle approach is much appreciated by critics like me because you gain a much better understanding of the possible evolution of each wine poured.

This delivers a handy play between dried cherries, tar and pomegranate and fresh rose petals and citrus with lilac undertones; it’s a very fresh and expert rendition of the hot 2012 vintage. While dense and ornately structured, in terms of the chunky tannins, there’s real transparency that comes through, against a backdrop of extrovert dried fruit. Drink from 2023.

Reserved for now, this red nonetheless exhibits buried flavors of black cherry, licorice, tea, eucalyptus and iron. Muscular tannins line the tobacco-accented finish, while a beam of fruit holds steady in the center. This will need some time to resolve the dense tannins. Best from 2023 through 2048. 300 cases made.

Vietti’s 2012 Barolo Riserva Villero is absolutely gorgeous. In 2012, the Villero is especially lifted and aromatic, showing a distinctly floral and red-toned expression of fruit rather than the darker, more balsamic inflections that are typical of this Castiglione Falletto cru. Light on its feet, fresh and graceful to its core, the Villero is another terrific wine from Vietti in 2012. Veins of Villero tannin and bright acids give the wine energy, vibrancy and tons of character. More than anything else, though, the 2012 Villero is a very clear continuation of a stylistic evolution that can be traced to the 2010 Barolo Ravera in which the Barolos are now made in a more traditional style than in the past, which includes malolactic fermentation in cask rather than barrique. In 2012, that approach was not in place for all the Barolos, but it is very much evident here.