Of all Barolo's Grand Crus, Rocche di Castiglione is surely one of the grandest. It’s a long, steep limestone-rich site that stretches just south of the village of Castiglione, facing perfectly towards the southeast like many of Piedmont’s greatest vineyards. It is located almost exactly in the middle of DOC Barolo and seems to produce wines that pull together, with exceptional poise and tension, all of Barolo’s elements, from cherry fruit and rose petals to wild mushrooms and dried herbs.Rocche, in fact, is such a great and famous site that the Viberti family, which has worked the vines of Castiglione since 1946, decided to join their own name to the Grand Cru and call their winery Roccheviberti. That may seem presumptuous, but in this case it is totally justified. While many famous producers release Rocche — Vietti, Brovia, Oddero and others — only Roccheviberti can claim to be true Rocche specialists: they have only 4.5 hectares of vines, and the vast majority of them are in Rocche.And they know what they're doing. We've been following their wines for years, and We're big fans of the style. Of the great Rocche producers, Roccheviberti is closest to Brovia's, in that it balances tradition with precision in order to best express the greatness and individuality of the site. So macerations are long, but not super long, so as not to extract too much tannin. There are no shiny new barriques here, but the giant casks that are used to age the wines are made of French oak, like at Brovia, to permit a gentler exchange of oxygen. The goal is classical Barolo that expresses the incredibly nuanced terroir of Rocche.
Professional Reviews
Antonio Galloni
Details
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Grape Variety
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Vintage
2021
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Size
750ml
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Farming Practice
Organic
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Style
Earthy , Fruity , Spicy
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Sweetness
Dry
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Body
Full Bodied