Domenico Clerico Barolo Ciabot Mentin 2020
Ciabot Mentin is a luminous garnet red in colour. There are typical Barolo characters of ripe red fruit, rose and spice on the nose. The palate is intense and well-balanced, and the finish long.
Ciabot Mentin is a cru within the Ginestra vineyard. “Ciabot” indicates a small building among the vines, almost a shelter for tools; while “Mentin” is the name of the previous owner of this plot. The vineyard, which was planted in 1978, lies between 390 and 420 metres above sea level with an east-facing position. The soils contain Marne di Sant’Agata fossils from the Tortonian period, and comprise of sand and clay loam with a high amount of active limestone.
The Nebbiolo grapes were carefully sorted and selected both in the vineyard and once at the winery, before being destemmed without crushing. A pre-fermentation maceration on the skins lasted for approximately 10-12 days with fermentation taking place at a controlled temperature of 30°C in stainless-steel tanks. The wine was then aged for 18 months in French oak barriques and Slavonian oak barrels before bottling.
Domenico Clerico’s impact on Langhe winemaking has been significant and his legacy remarkable. Together with a small group of other producers, Domenico was part of the renaissance of Barolo and the Langhe during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He took these areas from relative obscurity to what they are today: a unique territory consistently producing some of the world's best wines.
As is often the case in Barolo, the Clerico family owned a farm with five hectares of vineyards and sold their grapes to local cooperatives. When Domenico and his wife Giuliana picked up the family business in 1976, he started to vinify and bottle the family grapes, taking inspiration from France with a strict focus on the vineyards and vinification techniques in the winery. In 1977 he purchased a small plot of land in the heart of Bussia, then expanded in Monforte d’Alba with the acquisition of a plot in the Ginestra vineyard in 1981, Pajana in 1990 and Mosconi in 1995. In 2006 he started farming a vineyard in Serralunga d’Alba from which he produced the Aeroplanservaj. Today, the company owns a total of 21 hectares of vineyards.
Following Domenico’s premature death in 2017 the estate is now owned by his wife Giuliana, who runs it with the support of winemaker and general manager Oscar Arrivabene.
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