Black fruit, dried cherry, tar, licorice and shaved truffle open the bouquet of the Ceretto 2014 Barolo. This is an expressive and immediate wine that shows an upfront and frank personality. Like you might expect of the vintage, the mouthfeel is subdued and definitely thinner compared to warmer vintages. Tobacco, crushed stone and camphor ash appear on the silky finish. The aging process starts off with 12 months in French oak, of which only 10% is new wood. It then goes into Austrian oak casks for an additional 24 months. Some 53,000 bottles were made.

The 2014 Barolo is a very pretty wine, and one of the overachievers of the year. One of the reasons for that is because in 2014 Ceretto did not bottle a Brunate or Bricco Rocche. Far from the easygoing wine it usually is, the straight Barolo is tightly wound, austere and nervy, all qualities of this very unique growing season. Ceretto's 2014 could turn out to be a real surprise.