2004 Barolo Villero Riserva

Good bright red. Crushed cherry, dried flowers, minerals and menthol on the nose, complicated by spicy oak scents. Extremely tight, dry and penetrating, showing almost painful intensity today in spite of its velvety texture. Classic austere Barolo with a great, slowly mounting, vibrant finish and strong tannins that reach the front teeth. This will need long aging. Luca Currado, who told me that the 1996 bottling of this wine was not yet ready to drink, bottles his Villero as riserva because he feels it needs longer aging in casks than his other three Barolo cru bottlings; if he decides to declassify it, the juice goes into the next vintage of the Castiglione bottling, as the 2005 did.

The recently-bottled 2004 Barolo Villero is simply awesome. A vivid, multi-dimensional wine, the Villero emerges from the glass with layers of dark cherries, spices, violets, smoke, minerals, licorice and tar. The level of precision and clarity here is simply mind-boggling. Readers will have to wait until 2011 to get their hands on this gem, but any bottle opened before 2016 (at the very earliest) is likely to be a purely academic exercise. The Villero spent a whopping 46 months in oak, virtually all of it large cask. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2034. I sampled a mind-boggling array of outstanding – and often profound – wines in my marathon tasting session with proprietor and winemaker Luca Currado. The 2006 Barolos are nothing short of spectacular and the 2007s may be even better! Readers can check out notes on those wines in my recent feature on the estate posted on www.erobertparker.com. I should note that Vietti plans to release a 2006 Barolo Riserva Villero, but that wine is years from seeing the light of day. The Barolos are vinified in stainless steel, then racked into French oak for the malolactic fermentation, where the wines remain for a few months. The majority of aging takes place in large, neutral casks. Over the last few years, the use of French oak has become more measured and the Barolos are now among the elite wines of the region in virtually every vintage. In short, there seems to be no end to this estate’s ambition. Frankly, I wish there were more wineries setting their sights on this level of quality. Importer: Dalla Terra, Napa, CA; tel. (707) 259-5405

All of the elements that make the 2001 so attractive reappear in the 2004 Barolo Riserva Villero, only with even more expressiveness and character. The 2004 is showstopper loaded with class and pedigree. Endless layers of explosive fruit saturate the palate in this radiant, harmonious Barolo. Everything is simply in the right place, and there is just so much going on in the glass, in all direction. This is another dazzling effort from Vietti.