Transcendent Barolos: Michele Chiarlo and the Cerequio Edge

Will today’s wines prove to be as long-lived as those made 30 or 40 years ago? It is a fair question and one that haunts every devotee of ageworthy reds. For Barolo, at least, the answer arrived by way of a historic tasting: the first-ever complete vertical of every Cerequio vintage produced by Michele Chiarlo, held last month in La Morra, Italy.

Michele Chiarlo was among the founding fathers of modern Barolo, graduating in 1958 from Alba’s esteemed enology school, whose alumni included figures such as Renato Ratti and Giacomo Tachis – two of the defining architects of contemporary Italian wine.

The tasting, organized by his Michele Chiarlo's sons, Alberto and Stefano, was conceived as a celebration of the family estate’s 70th anniversary – a tribute to the work of one of the Langhe’s great visionaries and the enduring relevance Chiarlo’s  inimitable style across four decades.

The lineup traced every vintage of Barolo Cerequio ever produced, from the inaugural 1988 to the most recent, 2022: 30 wines spanning 30 vintages, skipping those never made (2024, 2014, 2008, 2002, 1994 and 1992) while including a few that, as the brothers admitted, “if they happened today, perhaps we would not make them again,” referring to 1991 and 1993.

Yet the significance of the tasting extended well beyond the identity of a single estate. It became, instead, a lens through which to examine Barolo itself. Chiarlo has maintained a consistently classical style over the decades, allowing for a reading of 30 vintages untouched by the sweeping stylistic shifts that have reshaped so much of the appellation.

The Michele Chiarlo winery has come to be regarded as modern but never modernist, evolving through reform rather than revolution. The fruit was always rigorously managed in the vineyard during times of severe green harvests and low yields. “It was crucial back then because the vintages were cold and rainy” Stefano Chiarlo recalled. “With two or three kilos per vine, the tannins would never fully ripen”. Malolactic fermentations took place in wooden vats, followed by aging in 25- or 30-hectoliter casks, and, up until 2009, partly in 700-liter oak barrels, of which one-third were new.

With such a solidly traditional approach, the tasting was shaped above all by the vintages themselves. The challenges of 1991 and 1993 have already been noted. In 1993, for example, the cooler eastern section of the Cerequio cru was excluded from bottling and folded instead into the Tortoniano blend, resulting in a less rich wine.

The 2004 was outstanding – a result of severe cuts in yield per hectare. In 2011, following the advice of Federico Curtaz, who was then the Gaja winery’s agronomist, there was a rush to harvest “because the pH was collapsing due to dehydration,” according to Stefano Chiarlo, who also offered a gently provocative aside about Barolo’s much-celebrated 1996 vintage: “It was held in such high regard because it was the first drinkable one after a string of very difficult years.”

Among the most recent wines, both 2022 and 2021 showed beautifully, while the cool 2013 has clearly gained stature with time. The 2015 emerged as an utterly extraordinary wine, not only now but also in terms of longevity. Slightly below lofty expectations were the 2016 – perhaps because of a less-than-perfect bottle – and the 2006.

The 1988, though more fragile, was pure emotion in the glass, while the 1989, 1990 and 1999 stood as towering expressions of Barolo – embodiments of the classicism that devotees of the wine still hold in their collective memory.

What emerged most unmistakably, however, was the remarkable consistency of Cerequio across four decades, with certain defining traits of the cru always in evidence. Chief among them was the depth of the tannin – long, savory and marked by a vibrating signature that recalls igneous rock.

There are precise geological reasons behind that character. Cerequio is a rounded hilltop of 24 hectares, of which Chiarlo owns 3.5 hectares spread across both east- and west-facing slopes. Much like neighboring Brunate, the soil is rich in magnesium and manganese – “four times higher than in other zones” according to the Chiarlo brothers – minerals carried down from the Italian Alps and responsible for the wine’s profound sensation of minerality.

It is a great Barolo that has traversed the era of the appellation’s most dramatic transformations without ever bending to fashion or trend: proud of its identity, and a faithful expression of the cru it helped make famous.

– Aldo Fiordelli, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. You can sort the wines below by vintage and score. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.