It’s always lovely to sit down with Tiziana and her son Davide, to catch up on what’s new and good in the Settimo cellar. She opened up everything she had for us, including a rare bottle of 2010 Selezione Cavalieri Barolo Rocche for us. My personal recommendation is, as always, to get some of her amazing timeless bottling of Dolcetto. These grapes are grown in a spot way too good for this grape and the results are always fantastic. And I love the fact that she waits to release it until she thinks it’s good and ready—crazy thinking for a wine that most release as soon as they can. The Langhe Nebbiolo remains the pick of the litter in this genre; no wood but it still manages to taste like a young Barolo. The secret is the fact that this is, indeed, made only from Rocche and Annunziata’s younger vines rather than from a poor exposure. The 2022 is deeply extracted and really expressive. The 2021 Rocche Barolo (get as much as you can!) is simply outstanding, a pure, focused expression of this vineyard with very little in the way of bells and whistles. You could use it as a primer for Barolo Rocche and Barolo in general. And the Riserva? We love the new label and the wine is very impressive!
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For the as-yet uninitiated, Tiziana Settimo is a longstanding OG member of Piemonte’s ever-expanding contingent of smart, talented women winemakers, but not one you’ll hear a lot about outside of La Morra. She’s not someone you’ll meet making the rounds of trade shows in New York, Chicago, LA or San Francisco to promote her wines and she simply doesn’t have the time or inclination to submit them to critics, magazines or competitions. She prefers, instead, to concentrate on farming her family’s large parcel of the famous Rocche dell’Annunziata cru in La Morra (Settimo has the second-largest holding in the vineyard) and fashioning her grapes into a couple of hundred cases of tremendous Nebbiolo and Barolo.
Tiziana was raised into the business by her father Aurelio whose own father had settled in the hamlet of Annunziata in 1943. She took over for good when Aurelio passed away in 2007, but had been, de facto, running the family business for years. Much to Tiziana’s relief, Davide has joined now too. The farm sits on a privileged part of Rocche, just above the hamlet and, with its immediate neighbors, Brunate and Cerequio, forms the sweet spot of La Morra’s so-called Grandi Vigne vineyards. Tiziana currently has fourteen acres under vine, eight of which are in the heart of Rocche and range in age from 30 to 50 years old. These vines are dedicated to her three small bottlings of Barolo and the tiny bit of Nebbiolo and Dolcetto she makes.
Tiziana learned winemaking from her father (who had learned it from his), and she considers herself a staunch traditionalist. Even though the cantina has undergone a recent renovation, you still won’t find any new wood or small barrels among the concrete fermenters and large Slovonian oak botti—this is old-school winemaking at its purest. Her Rocches are, of course, sensational. Made only from the sweet spot of the amphitheater, Tiziana ages her Nebbiolo for 36 months, 24 of those in older French oak casks before bottling. The Barolos here are lovely wines that drink well all through their lives.
– John Rittmaster, Wine Director
