To knowledgeable Barolo lovers, the name Voerzio is synonymous with the village of La Morra and its celebrated ‘cru’ vineyard, “La Serra.” Both Roberto and Gianni Voerzio—brothers who worked together with their father before Roberto went out on his own in the eighties—are the authors of many legendary wines from this site, and in 2006 their younger cousin, Alberto, joined the fray—and didn’t miss a beat!
Working with just four total hectares of vineyards, including a little over a hectare in La Serra, Alberto Voerzio knows he has a lot to live up to; he’s a hands-on
vignaiolo who’s put in the kind of work that results in pure, authentic wines like this excellent 2015. I haven’t yet tasted a large quantity of 2015 Barolos, but Voerzio’s La Serra is easily the best so far and a sign of great things to come: It’s got perfectly ripe tannins, an extra layer of cherry fruit, and wonderful integration even at this ‘young’ stage. Critic Antonio Galloni observed that the 2015s “…don’t have the intense warm-vintage profile of wines from years such as 2003, 2007 or 2011,” which is a good way to describe Voerzio’s silky, succulent La Serra: It is structured without being austere, approachable without being overblown. It’s got perfect proportions and you could drink one now without feeling like you jumped the gun. In 10-15 years, meanwhile, it will be in its happy place. You really can’t ask for anything more—this is the best Barolo we’ve experienced around here in quite a while!
Like most of the best vineyards in the commune of La Morra, the La Serra cru faces east-southeast and reaches a relatively high altitude (for Barolo) of about 450 meters. When looking at the Barolo region overall, the vineyards of La Morra, with their “morning” exposures, have tended to produce prettier, less fiercely tannic expressions of Barolo. I’m generally not inclined to compare Barolo’s Nebbiolo to Burgundy’s Pinot Noir, but wines from La Morra tend to be the most “Burgundian” expressions of the bunch, with a brighter red cherry fruit component, more rose petal florals, and a little less of the iron-shaving austerity of wines from villages such as Serralunga, where there’s more sandstone in the soil and expositions are oriented more south/southwest.
In an interview with an Italian journalist, Alberto Voerzio says his cousin, Roberto, alerted him to the availability of vines in La Serra. This was back in 2002. “He warned me that if I was interested I had to decide quickly, because otherwise he would have bought it,” he said, and with his father as guarantor he was able to secure the parcel. Alberto initially worked out of a small rented cellar but has since completed a modest facility of his own in the La Morra hamlet of Brandini, while growing his vineyard holdings to four hectares. He’s still a one-man-band, overseeing all vineyard and cellar work personally and taking pride in using no chemicals or herbicides at any point in the process.
Roberto Voerzio became famous for adding a little flesh (via fanatically low yields) and flash (via new French oak) to the traditional La Morra frame, but like another so-called ‘modernist’ in La Morra, Elio Altare, Roberto’s wines had a clear, clean core of fruit that shone through; it isn’t easy to coax fruit concentration out of the late-ripening, high-acid Nebbiolo, which many producers were loath to “green harvest” back when Roberto was starting out. Alberto Voerzio, meanwhile, is part of a new generation of producers who manage to combine the best practices of modernists and traditionalists alike to find a balance that feels right. Alberto conducts two green harvests during the growing season to ensure a low yield of optimal ripeness, after which the hand-harvested fruit is fermented on native yeasts in stainless steel and aged 24 months in 25% new French oak barriques.
Following its time in barrel, the 2015 La Serra spent another eight months in stainless steel and six months in bottle before its (recent) release into the market. For a young Barolo, its oak influence and tannins are beautifully integrated already, although there’s still more knitting together to come: In the glass, it’s a medium ruby moving to garnet and a hint of orange at the rim, with a nicely perfumed nose of wild black and red berries, brandied cherries, spiced plum, rose petal, cocoa, vanilla bean, and tobacco. It is full-bodied without being heavy or austere, but rather quite lively thanks to great balancing acidity. With about an hour in a decanter it would be a pleasure to enjoy a bottle now at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems, but the sweet spot for this wine lay about 3-5 years down the road. There’s great elegance and balance to this wine, with no undue alcohol heat—I think it’s going to be a long-termer for the cellar, so consider grabbing some to lay down. Pair it with Andrew Carmellini’s recipe for gnocchi with wild mushrooms and enjoy the interplay of heady, earthy aromas. Piedmontese perfection!
