Dalla Terra™ Winery Direct® Founder and Chairman Brian Larky, and Luca Currado, fifth-generation oenologist of Vietti today announced the September release of the 2004 Villero Riserva Barolo DOCG (SRP $300). Only produced in outstanding vintages, this wine is released on average once or twice a decade and is vinified from grapes grown on the south and southwest-facing slopes of one of Piedmont’s most celebrated cru vineyards, the Villero vineyard in Castiglione Falletto. This rare wine becomes a Riserva after a seven-year ageing process spending eight months in once- and twice-filled French oak barrique and 26 months in 30hL Slavonian oak casks before being bottled unfiltered and unfined in July 2007. The previous release of Vietti’s Villero Barolo Riserva was the 2001 vintage. Vietti produced 621 750mL six-bottle cases, 100 magnums, 12 double magnums, and five 5L bottles of the 2004 vintage.
“We are thrilled to release the 2004 Villero. Within living memory no decade has been as generous in treating us to extraordinarily great vintages as those of the new millennium,” said Currado.
While famous for its top quality and scarcity, the Vietti “Villero” has also caught the attention of connoisseurs for its unique labels, which are commissioned by the Currado family to local artists for each differing vintage—a practice that was introduced in 1970, and dedicated exclusively to the “Villero” Riserva since 1982. These specially-designed original works (lithographs, xylographies, etchings, silkscreens, linocuts) are inspired by the wine of that particular vintage. The print run is the same as the number of bottles produced, and the first hundred labels are signed by the artist. In 1996, the entire Vietti label archives were exhibited at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Russian sculptor and painter Leonid Sokov was tapped for the 2004 “Villero” label. Sokov’s pop art style and artistic compositions are filtered and adapted to Socialist Realism through the use of ideology as an object of consumption
About Vietti
Although the family has made wine for two centuries, the first Vietti-labeled wines were produced by third-generation Mario, who transformed the family’s farm into a grape growing winery. In 1952 Alfredo Currado married Mario’s daughter Luciana and made a name for Vietti’s single-vineyard Barbera and Barolo. He also put the native Piedmont varietal Arneis on the wine map.
In 1990 Alfredo and Luciana’s son Luca joined the family business as winemaker after working at California's Simi Winery, Opus One and Long Vineyards and Bordeaux's Mouton-Rothschild. His innovative winemaking utilizes a unique combination of the modern and traditional, including roto-fermenters, barriques, large Slovenian oak botte, and open-top fermenters. Recently he eliminated equipment that measures acid and tannin levels in favor of a more intuitive, and wine-specific approach, and also stopped publishing tasting notes, preferring that wine critics and drinkers apply their own perceptions and preferences to his wines. In 1983 Mario Cordero, Alfredo and Luciana’s son-in-law joined the winery to run marketing and sales. Vietti currently owns 80 acres of vineyards spread over nearly all the key regional appellations, including Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera d'Asti and Barbera d'Alba. Total production is currently 17,000 cases. For more information about Vietti, please go to www.vietti.com
About Dalla Terra™ Winery Direct®
Dalla Terra’s wine portfolio reads like a Who’s Who of some of the most esteemed family-owned wineries in Italy. Each producer has played a major role in the significant strides Italy has made over the last twenty years in improving the quality of its wines. Dalla Terra Winery Direct_ is changing the nature of the wine importing and distribution business. Founder Brian Larky’s innovative approach to selling wine skips the national importer level in the three-tier distribution system, allowing U.S. distributors to buy directly from the producer. This unique business model offers a more efficient, economical and consumer-friendly way of shipping, distributing and marketing wine—despite a strong Euro that has raised some prices as much as 25%. In spite of these unfavorable exchange rates, Dalla Terra continues to act innovatively to bring both quality and value to American wine consumers. For more information on Dalla Terra, visit www.dallaterra.com.
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