A much more overt, powerful wine, the 2010 Barolo Cerretta races across the palate with explosive fruit and tons of pure, unbridled energy. The Cerretta is an immediate, voluptuous wine with so much fruit that the tannins of the vintage are nearly buried. It will be fascinating to see how Conterno’s 2010s age. The Cerretta is shaping up to be magical. Bottled only in magnums.

– vinous.com, September 2014

This shows such power and richness, yet it remains polished and silky. Deep from the beginning, on the nose there are mushrooms, some sweet tobacco, opulent dark fruit, meat, black olives and earth. It's full-bodied, dense and surrounded by ultra-refined tannins. Goes on for minutes. This is the first Barolo from here and will only be bottled in 2000 magnums. From 20-year-old vines bought in 2008. It's a beautiful wine to taste now but will be so much better in 2017 and onwards.

– jamessuckling.com, October 2014

(from vines planted in 1993; Conterno purchased three prime hectares in this Serralunga cru in 2008): Good bright red. Knockout sweet aromas of smoke, minerals and dried flowers. Offers outstanding inner-mouth energy to its intense red fruit, smoke and mineral flavors, conveying great density without any obvious impression of weight. Finishes with big, subtle, building tannins and great perfumed persistence. Conterno told me that he vinified the clay and calcaire elements separately before blending the two components. Incidentally, after racking his Barolos three times in the first year, he does minimal racking thereafter and bottles without fining or filtration. He does less pumping over during the vinification of the Cerretta because he does not want to extract too much tannin. He may bottle this first release of the Cerretto entirely in magnums. (Incidentally, I also tasted a sample of the 2011 version of this wine. It showed a slightly liqueur-like quality to its fruit but was wonderfully fresh and youthful for the vintage, showing outstanding balance of fruit and tannins.)