2019 Tenuta Cucco Serralunga D'Alba Barolo 750 ml

The village of Serralunga d’Alba holds a special place in the heart of Barolo lovers. It’s home to the most expensive bottle in Barolo, Conterno’s Monfortino ($1,300+), and another of its most famous, Bruno Giacosa’s Falletto Vigna Le Rocche Red Label ($500+). 

You generally pay a steep premium for Barolo from Serralunga—but our last trip to the Piedmont yielded a stellar deal on a handful of cases of Tenuta Cucco’s 95-point, organically grown powerhouse, which Wine Spectator praised as “a great example of elegance married to intensity.”

Tenuta Cucco’s 2019 Barolo is the product of just two crus—Bricco Voghera and Cerrati. Both have the limestone-heavy soils that distinguish the ageworthy wines of the village from those of La Morra or Barolo itself, and provide the cherry-packed flavors dusted with herbs that captivated us when we tasted this over the summer. Perfect south-southeast exposition ensures that the grapes are perfectly ripe, especially in a moderately warm year like 2019.

Cucco has been known for their Serralunga Baroli since the 1960s—it’s hard to fly under the radar when your winery sits a few hundred yards from the town’s famous castle. They farm their sites organically, believing that the extra care in the vineyard produces grapes with more character and flavor. This, of course, translates through into the bottle.

In the winery, tradition rules the day. This 2019 was harvested in the full fog of October, and then the grapes were treated to submerged-cap fermentation. The wine, which aged in large botti for two full years before another year in bottle, is delicious now with some air, but has a long future in the cellar.