Walter Speller

Castiglione Falletto, Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba are the focus of this report. For an overview of the vintage and notes on wines from the communes of Verduno, Barolo, Novello and La Morra, see part 1. Above, the view from Monforte to Serralunga.

Castiglione Falletto

Most of Castiglione Falletto’s Barolos can be approached now. Several of them suggest that the commune sometimes struggled to achieve ripeness; especially at alcohol levels around 13.5%, the wines lack a little in complexity, although there are no green undertones or rough tannins. Meanwhile, the cru of Villero, the hottest in Castiglione, seems the most consistent of its crus (named vineyards), and offers some of the highest-scoring wines, notably Cordero di Montezemolo’s outstanding Enrico VI. Rocche di Castiglione, one of Castiglione’s most elegant crus, did not disappoint in this aspect, although, again, I found the wines rather light, and in some cases even lean. With the 2020 Paolo Scavino released their first vintage of this cru, which is a good wine but needs a more benign vintage to really show what it has.

Monforte d’Alba

On the communal level two 2020 wines stand out, the first being Margherita Otto, run by American ex wine merchant and ex restaurateur Alan Manley. Before he set up his tiny estate in Monforte d’Alba he worked for Maria Teresa Mascarello and Luciano Sandrone. Manley produces only one Barolo, which is an assemblage from grapes from Monforte. His 2020 is super-stylish and minerally and I am impressed with how well Manley managed to interpret the vintage, without any formal training in either viticulture or winemaking. The second wine is Diego Conterno’s del Comune di Monforte. Skilfully made, it has finely chiselled tannins and feels so elegant it is almost ethereal. It is definitely worth seeking out and serving it blind to especially hard-to-convince burgundy and Pinot Noir lovers. You might get them hooked on Barolo this way.

Monforte d’Alba’s most important cru is Bussia, not least because of its enormous surface of almost 300 ha (741 acres). Differences in style and quality within the cru are therefore a given, but in general the wines tend to be in the dark-fruit rather than the red-fruit spectrum. However, this year, the opposite is the case. I already noticed this last year while tasting the Aldo Conterno 2020 Bussia wines, which were characterised by an elegance I do not immediately associate with young Bussia. That said, the tannins of the various Bussia wines are finely chiselled, matching the fine fruit.

In this vintage, the Ginestra cru seems to have been one of the most consistent of Monforte and perhaps even the most exciting, as far as the small number of samples allows in making that generalisation. Conterno Fantino’s Vigna del Gris and Vigna Sorì Ginestra complement each other in a stunning way, with the former perhaps a little more complex. However, this only becomes clear when tasting them side by side. Both wines should be on your Christmas-dinner list.

Recently, the cru of Castelletto has been getting quite a bit of attention, not least due to the fact that in the last 10 years or so, some eight producers entered the fray. The popularity cannot be explained only by the fact that any MGA, with a proven track record or not, obtains premium prices in hectares as well as in bottle. It’s also that Castelletto’s climate is cool on average, which is increasingly beneficial for the production of fine wine in a world that is steadily heating up. In 2020 Castelletto is impressively consistent in quality, the wines in general polished, with elegant tannins.

Serralunga d’Alba

This village always seems to have a lucky streak, especially in more modest vintages. This was amply proven by its ‘classic’ blended Barolos from grapes grown within its borders. Go for lofty names rather than unknowns, and you can’t go wrong.

With almost 40 ha (99 acres) the cru of Cerretta is not particularly large, but it is, according to Alessandro Masnaghetti, the most fragmented and complex in the whole of Serralunga d’Alba. In this vintage Cerretta reveals itself either as very fruit-driven, or, at the very opposite end of the scale, almost ephemerally light. This is sometimes caused by a lack of properly ripe fruit, but occasionally this has resulted in pristinely elegant wines. To single out just one: Prunotto’s Cerretta is outstanding, while Davide Fregonese’s, vinified by Davide Rosso at his Giovanni Rosso estate, is topped only by Rosso’s own Cerretta bottling of 2020.

The cru of Lazzarito I have always experienced as a ‘slumbering beast’. In 2020 the wines are relatively high in alcohol, and, with very few exceptions, are completely ready now. That is not a disadvantage because they are certain to hold for at least half a decade and probably more. But I don’t think any Barolo producer, not just of this cru, would complain if the 2020s are drunk up fast, while having the potentially stellar 2021 in their cellars waiting to be released in January 2025.

The 113 wines from the 2020 vintage below are grouped by commune and within the communes by cru (named vineyard) – ordered from more elegant to more tannic styles within those groups. They are followed by 11 late releases and Riservas from earlier vintages.

Parusso 2020 Barolo del comune di Monforte D'Alba

Parusso, Mariondino 2020 Barolo