Viberti "Pubblicano" Dolcetto Dogliani DOCG 2021

Description

Viberti Pubblicano Dolcetto Dogliani DOCG 2021 has just arrived in the warehouse and I can’t wait to share it with you. It’s an unoaked red wine produced from 100% Dolcetto grown in the Dogliani DOCG region near to Barolo in Piedmont. In fact Viberti is a leading Barolo producer and from this 2021 vintage also decided to produce a modern style of Dolcetto. Despite its name, Dolcetto meaning little sweet one in Italian, the Dolcetto grape can and often produces full-bodied wines with high tannins, intense black fruit flavours and earthy and sometimes bitter dark chocolate notes.

However Viberti Pubblicano Dolcetto Dogliani  is a much more subtle and approachable style of Dolcetto. The tannins are unobtrusive –  partly because the pips are excluded when the grape juice is macerating on the skins – and unusually the acidity that makes wine refreshing is relatively high in this wine. Fermented and aged entirely in stainless steel tanks, the aim is for the fruit aromas and flavours to shine through which they do – crunchy red fruits like raspberries mix with the ripe black cherries, damsons and notes of pepper, spices, mocha and liquorice. The wine has had no sulphites added, is medium-bodied and rather elegant. If it seems a little closed initially, swirl your glass to give the wine some aeration which will release the fruity fragrances. I have classified this as a smooth elegant red wine but it could equally fall into the soft fruity red category.

Decanter magazine recently wrote “Dolcetto is certainly an underrated grape variety that can give great pleasure and joy.’
Dolcetto is without doubt very well suited to today’s taste for lively, fresh wines.” The Dogliani DOCG is relatively new and yet considered by many to be the birthplace of the Dolcetto grape; the grapes in Viberti Pubblicano Dolcetto Dogliani come from a vineyard in the village of Dogliani. The origins of the Viberti Giovanni winery go back to 1923 when Antonio Viberti started to produced wines in the basement for guests of the family inn or locanda, Buon Padre. Third generation Claudio now looks after the family business and continues their passion for creating great wine sustainably.