2018 Pio Cesare Barbaresco

Type of Wine | Red |
---|---|
Country | Italy |
Region | |
Appellation | |
Winery | |
Vintage | 2018 |
Grape | |
Content (Alc) | 0.75 ltr (14%) |
Drink window | 2023 - 2038 |
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Only 1 left
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Description
The Barbaresco is an ultimate Nebbiolo wine, that is to say a wine that has naturally acquired a lot of firmness through the use of the Nebbiolo grape, and therefore has to mature for a long time. However, the Nebbiolo is picked when it is perfectly ripe, usually around mid-October. The grapes come almost exclusively from the municipality of Treiso. The rest of the grapes come from vineyards in Barbaresco and San Rocco Seno dElvio. This produces a wine with more complexity, due to the different terroirs. Fermentation takes place with optimal contact between skins and fermenting wine, to give the wine color and character. The grapes ferment at about 25 degrees and they stay in contact with the fermenting wine for between three and four weeks. It then matures in barriques, partly new barrels of French oak, partly also new barrels of Slavonian oak. A deliberate choice has been made for a long wood aging, up to three years for part of the wine, to give it more complexity and to emphasize the beauty of the wine. And Pio Cesare more than succeeded in that.
The house of Pio Cesare is one of the classic producers of the region. Located in Alba, the wine capital of this region, and founded in 1881 by Cesare Pio. His name has been retained in reverse order as the name of this trading house and family business. It is still in family hands, because it is headed by Pio Boffa, the great-grandson of the founder. He continues the work of the family in an excellent way, and in the meantime he is also responsible for a number of modernizations and changes at this fine, traditional company. For example, Pio Cesare has always been a trading house, which contracted the grapes from wine growers in the region. This is also a common practice in this region, which has many small winegrowers with small plots of vineyard, who are always willing to sell their grapes to one of the trading houses. In that respect, the region is a bit like Burgundy, with all those different vineyards, each with its own name, divided into small pieces of vineyard, all of which are owned by a different winegrower.
Pio Boffa has decided that it is a good thing for the quality of the wines to own vineyards. Over the years, he has therefore purchased a number of vineyards, especially in the famous areas of Barolo and Barbaresco. The vineyard property is now 45 hectares in size, and produces some of the house's finest wines, with a few separate vineyard cuvées as the highlights. These are only marketed in the good years.
The necessary changes have also been made in winemaking. A very restrained vinification has been chosen, in which the wine is left alone as much as possible, so with as few interventions as possible. Each wine receives the individual treatment that best suits that particular wine, with a shorter or longer fermentation on the skins, whether or not followed by a classic aging in Slavonian oak, the traditional wood of the region. It produces wines with a classic finesse, balanced and complex, worthy representatives of this special wine region.
92/100 Parker and 95/100 Suckling
Specifications
Type of Wine | Red |
---|---|
Country | Italy |
Region | Piemonte |
Appellation | Barbaresco |
Winery | Pio Cesare |
Grape | Nebbiolo |
Biological certified | No |
Natural wine | No |
Vegan | No |
Vintage | 2018 |
Drinking as of | 2023 |
Drinking till | 2038 |
Alcohol % | 14 |
Alcohol free/low | No |
Content | 0.75 ltr |
Oak aging | Yes |
Sparkling | No |
Dessert wine | No |
Closure | Cork |
Parker rating | 93 |
James Suckling rating | 94 |
Vinous rating | 92 |
Tasting Profiles | Aards, Boers, Complex, Droog, Houtgerijpt, Krachtig, Mineraal, Rood fruit, Tannines, Vol |
Drink moments | Lekker luxe, Met vrienden |
Professional Reviews
Parker
Rating
92
Release Price
$82
Drink Date
2023 - 2037
Reviewed by
Monica Larner
Issue Date
17th Jun 2021
Source
June 2021 Week 3, The Wine Advocate
The Pio Cesare 2017 Barbaresco is subtle and fine in personality, yet there is plenty of Nebbiolo elegance and complexity. Past vintages of this wine have shown enormous consistency when it come to their inner finesse, and this hot, more challenging vintage is no different. That's quite an accomplishment on its own. Tart cherry and cassis segue to spice, campfire ash, tobacco and dried lavender flower. Perhaps the tannic power of the wine is more robust but not by too much.
The exceptional outpouring of emotion following the death of Pio Boffa, the legendary figure behind Pio Cesare, earlier this year became a milestone moment for Italian wine as it grapples with the ongoing emotional and economic devastation left by the coronavirus.
Pio Boffa, 66, died the night of April 17, 2021, after a two-week battle with COVID-19. The Italian wine community mourned his passing, setting the Internet ablaze with moving tributes, photos and memories, just as the rest of the nation started to see the first glimmers of light at the end of this pandemic tunnel.
Pio Boffa represented the fourth generation of his family to head Pio Cesare, founded by his great grandfather Cesare Pio in 1881. The Alba-based winery would become one of the most important in Italy, with 70 hectares of vines and an annual production of half a million bottles. Today, the wines are exported to more than 50 countries.
Pio Boffa will be remembered for his charisma, his generosity and his love of life, wine and conviviality. And, as I can personally attest to, he was especially interested in encouraging opportunities for a younger generation of wine professionals. His oversized enthusiasm was contagious.
Boffa died just as his beloved company celebrates its 140th anniversary.
To mark the occasion, two special commemorative wines will be released. The first is a 2000 Barolo Riserva (with just 500 bottles available). The label shows the image of a key worn as a necklace by the family matriarch, Nonna Rosy, who died last year at 98 years old. Going forward, Pio Cesare will implement a program of late-release wines with special selections from their historic cellars.
The second commemorative wine is a 2017 Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d’Alba. Exactly 1881 bottles were produced, one for each year since the company’s founding. The wine sees fruit from four vineyard sites: Ornato, La Briccolina, La Serra and Lirano.
A fifth generation is now in place. Pio Boffa’s daughter Federica Rosy and his nephew Cesare Benvenuto head the company today.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua...
James Suckling
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua...
Wine Spectator
92
$85
Pio Cesare
Barbaresco 2018
A rich, earthy style, this red evokes cherry, raspberry, iron and tobacco flavors. Broad tannins announce the finish, yet this remains balanced and lingers. Best from 2025 through 2040. 2,500 cases made, 600 cases imported.
Bruce Sanderson
Senior Editor, New York
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua...
Vinous
92
Drinking Window
2023 - 2038
From: Focus on Barbaresco – A Close Look at 2019 & 2020 (Oct 2022)
The 2018 Barbaresco Pio is classy, elegant and wonderfully polished. Sweet spice, cedar, tobacco, leather and dried cherry all open effortlessly. This gracious, mid-weight Barbaresco has plenty to offer in an up-front, early drinking style. The silky, ethereal qualities of Nebbiolo are very much in evidence.
- By Antonio Galloni on September 2022
I was impressed with Pio Cesare’s 2019 Barbarescos. It’s great to see this historic house focusing on a traditional style that is more in line with its heritage. The 2019s are nuanced, translucent and wonderfully classy from start to finish.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua...
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Wijnhuis
The house Pio Cesare is one of the classic producers of the region. Based in Alba, the region's "wine capital", and founded in 1881 by Cesare Pio. Its name has been retained in reverse order as the name of this trading house and family business. It is still in family hands, as it is headed by Pio Boffa, the founder's great-grandson. He continues the work of the family in an excellent way, and has since also been responsible for a number of modernisations and changes at this beautiful, traditional company. For example, Pio Cesare has always been a trading house, which purchased the grapes on contract from winegrowers in the region. This is also a common practice in this region, which has many small winegrowers with small patches of vineyard, who are always ready to sell their grapes to one of the trading houses. In that respect, the region is a bit like Burgundy, with all those different vineyards, each with its own name, divided into small pieces of vineyard, all of which are owned by a different winemaker.
Pio Boffa has decided that for the quality of the wines it is a good thing to also own vineyards. Over the years he has therefore acquired a number of vineyards, especially in the famous areas of Barolo and Barbaresco. The vineyard property now extends over 45 hectares, and produces some of the house's finest wines, topped by a few distinct vineyard cuvées. These are only marketed in the good years. The necessary changes have also been made in winemaking. We have opted for a very restrained vinification, in which the wine is left alone as much as possible, so with as few interventions as possible. Each wine receives the individual treatment that best suits that particular wine, with a shorter or longer fermentation on the skins, whether or not followed by a classic maturation on Slavonian oak, the traditional wood of the region. It produces wines with a classic finesse, balanced and complex, worthy representatives of this special wine region.
The Barbaresco is an ultimate Nebbiolo wine, that is to say a wine that has naturally acquired a lot of firmness through the use of the Nebbiolo grape, and therefore has to mature for a long time. However, the Nebbiolo is picked when it is perfectly ripe, usually around mid-October. The grapes come almost exclusively from the municipality of Treiso. The rest of the grapes come from vineyards in Barbaresco and San Rocco Seno dElvio. This produces a wine with more complexity, due to the different terroirs. Fermentation takes place with optimal contact between skins and fermenting wine, to give the wine color and character. The grapes ferment at about 25 degrees and they stay in contact with the fermenting wine for between three and four weeks. It then matures in barriques, partly new barrels of French oak, partly also new barrels of Slavonian oak. A deliberate choice has been made for a long wood aging, up to three years for part of the wine, to give it more complexity and to emphasize the beauty of the wine. And Pio Cesare more than succeeded in that.
The house of Pio Cesare is one of the classic producers of the region. Located in Alba, the wine capital of this region, and founded in 1881 by Cesare Pio. His name has been retained in reverse order as the name of this trading house and family business. It is still in family hands, because it is headed by Pio Boffa, the great-grandson of the founder. He continues the work of the family in an excellent way, and in the meantime he is also responsible for a number of modernizations and changes at this fine, traditional company. For example, Pio Cesare has always been a trading house, which contracted the grapes from wine growers in the region. This is also a common practice in this region, which has many small winegrowers with small plots of vineyard, who are always willing to sell their grapes to one of the trading houses. In that respect, the region is a bit like Burgundy, with all those different vineyards, each with its own name, divided into small pieces of vineyard, all of which are owned by a different winegrower.
Pio Boffa has decided that it is a good thing for the quality of the wines to own vineyards. Over the years, he has therefore purchased a number of vineyards, especially in the famous areas of Barolo and Barbaresco. The vineyard property is now 45 hectares in size, and produces some of the house's finest wines, with a few separate vineyard cuvées as the highlights. These are only marketed in the good years.
The necessary changes have also been made in winemaking. A very restrained vinification has been chosen, in which the wine is left alone as much as possible, so with as few interventions as possible. Each wine receives the individual treatment that best suits that particular wine, with a shorter or longer fermentation on the skins, whether or not followed by a classic aging in Slavonian oak, the traditional wood of the region. It produces wines with a classic finesse, balanced and complex, worthy representatives of this special wine region.
92/100 Parker and 95/100 Suckling
Type of Wine | Red |
---|---|
Country | Italy |
Region | Piemonte |
Appellation | Barbaresco |
Winery | Pio Cesare |
Grape | Nebbiolo |
Biological certified | No |
Natural wine | No |
Vegan | No |
Vintage | 2018 |
Drinking as of | 2023 |
Drinking till | 2038 |
Alcohol % | 14 |
Alcohol free/low | No |
Content | 0.75 ltr |
Oak aging | Yes |
Sparkling | No |
Dessert wine | No |
Closure | Cork |
Parker rating | 93 |
James Suckling rating | 94 |
Vinous rating | 92 |
Tasting Profiles | Aards, Boers, Complex, Droog, Houtgerijpt, Krachtig, Mineraal, Rood fruit, Tannines, Vol |
Drink moments | Lekker luxe, Met vrienden |
Parker
Rating
92
Release Price
$82
Drink Date
2023 - 2037
Reviewed by
Monica Larner
Issue Date
17th Jun 2021
Source
June 2021 Week 3, The Wine Advocate
The Pio Cesare 2017 Barbaresco is subtle and fine in personality, yet there is plenty of Nebbiolo elegance and complexity. Past vintages of this wine have shown enormous consistency when it come to their inner finesse, and this hot, more challenging vintage is no different. That's quite an accomplishment on its own. Tart cherry and cassis segue to spice, campfire ash, tobacco and dried lavender flower. Perhaps the tannic power of the wine is more robust but not by too much.
The exceptional outpouring of emotion following the death of Pio Boffa, the legendary figure behind Pio Cesare, earlier this year became a milestone moment for Italian wine as it grapples with the ongoing emotional and economic devastation left by the coronavirus.
Pio Boffa, 66, died the night of April 17, 2021, after a two-week battle with COVID-19. The Italian wine community mourned his passing, setting the Internet ablaze with moving tributes, photos and memories, just as the rest of the nation started to see the first glimmers of light at the end of this pandemic tunnel.
Pio Boffa represented the fourth generation of his family to head Pio Cesare, founded by his great grandfather Cesare Pio in 1881. The Alba-based winery would become one of the most important in Italy, with 70 hectares of vines and an annual production of half a million bottles. Today, the wines are exported to more than 50 countries.
Pio Boffa will be remembered for his charisma, his generosity and his love of life, wine and conviviality. And, as I can personally attest to, he was especially interested in encouraging opportunities for a younger generation of wine professionals. His oversized enthusiasm was contagious.
Boffa died just as his beloved company celebrates its 140th anniversary.
To mark the occasion, two special commemorative wines will be released. The first is a 2000 Barolo Riserva (with just 500 bottles available). The label shows the image of a key worn as a necklace by the family matriarch, Nonna Rosy, who died last year at 98 years old. Going forward, Pio Cesare will implement a program of late-release wines with special selections from their historic cellars.
The second commemorative wine is a 2017 Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d’Alba. Exactly 1881 bottles were produced, one for each year since the company’s founding. The wine sees fruit from four vineyard sites: Ornato, La Briccolina, La Serra and Lirano.
A fifth generation is now in place. Pio Boffa’s daughter Federica Rosy and his nephew Cesare Benvenuto head the company today.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua...
James Suckling
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua...
Wine Spectator
92
$85
Pio Cesare
Barbaresco 2018
A rich, earthy style, this red evokes cherry, raspberry, iron and tobacco flavors. Broad tannins announce the finish, yet this remains balanced and lingers. Best from 2025 through 2040. 2,500 cases made, 600 cases imported.
Bruce Sanderson
Senior Editor, New York
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua...
Vinous
92
Drinking Window
2023 - 2038
From: Focus on Barbaresco – A Close Look at 2019 & 2020 (Oct 2022)
The 2018 Barbaresco Pio is classy, elegant and wonderfully polished. Sweet spice, cedar, tobacco, leather and dried cherry all open effortlessly. This gracious, mid-weight Barbaresco has plenty to offer in an up-front, early drinking style. The silky, ethereal qualities of Nebbiolo are very much in evidence.
- By Antonio Galloni on September 2022
I was impressed with Pio Cesare’s 2019 Barbarescos. It’s great to see this historic house focusing on a traditional style that is more in line with its heritage. The 2019s are nuanced, translucent and wonderfully classy from start to finish.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua...
Exclusive Content
Sign in to unlock professional wine reviews from world-renowned critics
The house Pio Cesare is one of the classic producers of the region. Based in Alba, the region's "wine capital", and founded in 1881 by Cesare Pio. Its name has been retained in reverse order as the name of this trading house and family business. It is still in family hands, as it is headed by Pio Boffa, the founder's great-grandson. He continues the work of the family in an excellent way, and has since also been responsible for a number of modernisations and changes at this beautiful, traditional company. For example, Pio Cesare has always been a trading house, which purchased the grapes on contract from winegrowers in the region. This is also a common practice in this region, which has many small winegrowers with small patches of vineyard, who are always ready to sell their grapes to one of the trading houses. In that respect, the region is a bit like Burgundy, with all those different vineyards, each with its own name, divided into small pieces of vineyard, all of which are owned by a different winemaker.
Pio Boffa has decided that for the quality of the wines it is a good thing to also own vineyards. Over the years he has therefore acquired a number of vineyards, especially in the famous areas of Barolo and Barbaresco. The vineyard property now extends over 45 hectares, and produces some of the house's finest wines, topped by a few distinct vineyard cuvées. These are only marketed in the good years. The necessary changes have also been made in winemaking. We have opted for a very restrained vinification, in which the wine is left alone as much as possible, so with as few interventions as possible. Each wine receives the individual treatment that best suits that particular wine, with a shorter or longer fermentation on the skins, whether or not followed by a classic maturation on Slavonian oak, the traditional wood of the region. It produces wines with a classic finesse, balanced and complex, worthy representatives of this special wine region.