Santa Maria CAPALÒT RISERVA Barolo DOCG (2019) –– Piemonte

A family that makes only two wines, from one vineyard, above one cellar. The Riserva is the Barolo they hold back longest — the best bunches of a great vintage, and years of waiting before it leaves Santa Maria.

THE GRAPE
Nebbiolo from the oldest parcels of Capalòt in La Morra, on marl and sand at 350 metres. A Riserva here is not a different recipe, just a stricter selection and a great deal more patience.

THE WINE
Selected in the vineyard, then aged well beyond the standard Barolo — the Riserva rules ask for five years before release, and Walter takes his time. From the excellent 2019 vintage it is a deeper wine than the Capalòt: dried rose, black cherry, liquorice, tobacco leaf and a long, savoury finish that keeps building. Still young. Decant now if you must; better from 2030 to 2045.

FOOD PAIRING
The big occasions: roast game, a rib of beef, braised ox cheek, or a bollito misto. And a wheel of well-aged cheese at the end.

THE WINEMAKER 
The Viberti family have grown Nebbiolo in the hamlet of Santa Maria, La Morra, since the late 1700s and bottled it since 1935. Walter Viberti runs the farm today as his father did: hand-picked grapes, big old Slavonian casks, and around 10,000 bottles a year, half Barolo and half Langhe Nebbiolo. He calls himself one of the last zebras among the lions of Barolo — no consultants, no barriques, no plans to grow.