2020 Giovanni Rosso, Barolo, Cerretta

Davide Rosso’s 2020 Barolo Cerretta is laced with sweet dark cherry, spice, lavender, cedar, pipe tobacco and dried herbs. Medium in body, with compelling sweetness and inner perfume, the 2020 has much to recommend it. Readers will find an especially open Barolo that is typical of this sector in Serralunga, where the wines are a bit more forward and less potent than those from vineyards closer to the center of town. This is beautifully done.

The Giovanni Rosso 2020 Barolo Cerretta, with fruit from Serralunga d'Alba, is quite generous and ripe, owing to sunny vintage conditions. It opens to a dark ruby color and pretty concentration with perfumes that are fine and elegant; they recall lavender, wild berry, plum and rusty nail. The Cerretta vineyard delivers a lingering sense of sweetness, and that becomes a signature for this wine. These results are immediate and up front.

Serralunga d’Alba. Palish ruby. Spice, dark earth and minerally, salty notes over deep raspberry fruit. Impressive depth on the palate while the fruit is still a little backward. Very long with lots of supple acidity and a long grip of super-fine grainy tannins. (WS)