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The nebbiolo grapes for the Barolo come from the most beautiful slopes in the region. The largest part, around 70%, comes from the family's own vineyards in Serralunga d'Alba. The rest comes from producers in Castiglione Falletto and Monfort, who have been supplying grapes to the family for more than a hundred years. The grapes from Serralunga give strength, those from Castiglione Falletto smell and temptation, and those from Monforte refinement and subtlety. The grapes are harvested and selected by hand, and only harvested when they are perfectly ripe, from mid-October to even early November. The grapes ferment at about 25 degrees and they stay in contact with the fermenting wine for between three and four weeks, just like with the Barbaresco. The ripening is also the same, on barriques, partly new barrels of French oak, partly on also new barrels of Slavonic oak. Here too a long maturation of wood has been chosen, up to three years for part of the wine, to give it more complexity and to underline the beauty of the wine. It yields a special, monumental Barolo.

The Barolo of Pio Cesare is broad and complex, powerful, herbs, roses, earthy, truffle and laurel, the taste pretty powerful, but also velvety and soft, nicely balanced, with a lot of finesse and with beautiful tannins. Great with venison steak or hare pepper, mature cheeses, but of course also delicious as wine after a nice meal

The house 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 preserved 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 is now also responsible for a number of modernizations and changes at this beautiful, traditional company. Pio Cesare, for example, has always been a trading house that bought the grapes under contract from winemakers from the region. That is also a common practice in this region, which has many small winemakers with small pieces of vineyard, who are always willing to sell their grapes to one of the trading houses. In that respect the region looks a bit like Burgundy, with all those different vineyards, each with its own name, subdivided into small pieces of vineyard, all owned by a different winegrower.

Pio Boffa has decided that for the quality of the wines it is a good thing to own vineyards. Over the years, he has purchased a number of vineyards, especially in the famous areas of Barolo and Barbaresco. The vineyard possession now covers 45 hectares, and produces a few of the most beautiful wines of the house, with a few separate vineyard cuvées as top toppers. These are only marketed in the good years.

The necessary changes have also been made to wine making. A very reserved vinification has been chosen, whereby the wine is left as much as possible in peace, 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 traditional 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.

94/100 Parker points and 96/100 James Suckling