Barbaresco, Crichet Paje, 2014

If ever a case was to be made for the unjustly- maligned 2014 Piedmont vintage then Luca Roagna QC would be the man to make it! Our own clear verdict, after tasting his whole range, both Barolos and Barbarescos, is that 2014 is an excellent vintage here. Admittedly cool years such as this don’t always come with consistency and involve a lot of hard work to achieve the desired results, but within Luca's range lies proof that with excellent terroir and dedicated, thoughtful vine-growing it was possible to yield first rate wine in 2014.

Luca is known for his late harvesting. This was particularly vital in 2014. He ran the risk of losing crop by waiting for full berry, skin and seed ripeness, thus ensuring the completeness of the wines and roundness of their tannins. A calculated decision by which Luca has been entirely vindicated. For this long, cool ripening season has resulted in accomplished wines of texture, finesse and clear vineyard expression.

There was de-selection of unripe fruit required on some individual vines, but the health of the bunches was uniformly good all the way through harvest - there was "not a spot of rot" according to Luca. This triage was necessary on the younger vines and has resulted in a loss of volume of 20%. Older vine production was more stable. Fruit was picked at around 13.9 to 14 degrees of potential alcohol, relatively low by modern Piemontese standards, with good concentration and flavour ripeness. After 60 days of long, gentle maceration on the skins and 5 years ageing in large used wooden tanks, the wines were bottled at the end of August 2019.