2018 Ca’ del Baio Vallegrande Barbaresco

2018 Ca’ del Baio Vallegrande Barbaresco

2018 Ca’ del Baio Vallegrande Barbaresco has a garnet red color; intense nose, with powerful fruit, dried flowers and underbrush; dry taste, smooth and rounded, ending in a warm finish with nicely-balanced tannins. A natural match for roast and terrine meats, mature cheeses and fondues, meat and vegetable soups.

You can find the elegant, striking wines of Barbaresco in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. These wines are composed of Nebbiolo, the region’s premier grape. Barbaresco wines are generally a light, reddish-orange in color, but they are not light on flavor. Their high acidity and tannins benefit from a couple of years aging, after which these wines reveal invigorating aromas of tart cranberries and cherries, cardamom, earth, and spices. If you ever wished that Pinot Noir had the punch of Cab, this might be the wine for you!

Valgrande or Vallegrande is a cru in the commune of Treiso, on land registry map sheet 2. The denomination corresponds with the farm of the same name, which in the mid-1800s was known as Cascina Viale, and was listed by Lorenzo Fantini in his “Monograph on Vinegrowing and Winemaking in the Province of Cuneo” as one of the locations dedicated to the vineyard. It is a medium-sized cru, with elevations varying between 270 and 400m a.s.l. The best areas for growing Nebbiolo are in the middle, facing from west to south-west. The northerly and north-westerly aspects – towards the Ferrere and Giacosa crus respectively – and the parts closer to the bottom of the valley are, on the other hand, more suited to other varieties, such as Barbera, Dolcetto and Moscato.

Ca’ del Baio has a number of Nebbiolo vineyards on the Vallegrande cru, covering an area of 3 hectares in all. They face west, and produce the estate’s Barbaresco Docg Valgrande.