Wine Enthusiast still chooses Nizza DOCG in its Top 100: Cipressi 2017 by Michele Chiarlo earns the 35th spot

door | 7 dec 2020 | Internationaal

After winning first place at the Enthusiast 100 back in 2018, Michele Chiarlo’s Nizza Cipressi comes back to the top among the best wines tasted by critics of the important American magazine, Wine Enthusiast.

A remarkable milestone both for the company, now synonymous with quality Piedmontese wines, and for the young DOCG, which has already entered the elite of the great wines of Italy in just a few years’ time.

Nizza DOCG Cipressi has been awarded the 35th spot in the Top 100 Enthusiast, standing out among the over 25,000 wines tasted and reviewed by the magazine’s editors who, for 2020, have included 16 Italian labels in the ranking, with Cipressi as the only representative of the denomination and the Barbera-based wines.

This accomplishment fills us with pride and gratitude. – says Stefano Chiarlo, leading Michele Chiarlo winery with his brother Alberto and their father Michele – Gratefulness for the people who work with us, sharing our vision, even during difficult years like this; and also, for my father, Michele Chiarlo, who, with his insight, has made possible goals that might seem unattainable. His dream of enhancing the Barbera grape has led us today to become proud representatives of this variety and of a young but outstanding denomination, the Nizza DOCG. A special thanks also goes to Kerin O’Keefe, the Italian editor of the prestigious magazine, for acknowledging our wines and understanding the production philosophy behind them”.

Michele Chiarlo is preparing to end 2020, proud to have been included 7 times in the prestigious Top 100 of Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator and to be recognized as one of the 200 best wineries in Italy by Opera Wine 2021, a tasting event that started in 2012 from the collaboration between Veronafiere, Vinitaly and Wine Spectator, again with Nizza Cipressi 2017

A 100% Barbera wine produced from the best exposed vineyards of the La Court estate, in the municipality of Castelnuovo Calcea, characterized by the Astiane sands, soils made up of clayey-calcareous marl of sedimentary marine origin, with good presence of silt and sand, rich in microelements particularly magnesium.   Born in one of the hottest and driest vintages of recent years, the early 2017 harvest, it required careful agronomic operations in the vineyard to preserve the elegance of the fruit, its acidity and the typical fresh notes of Barbera. The result is a greatly balanced wine that impresses with its refreshing softness and roundness that, given the characteristics of the vintage, has not been easy to obtain, and that allows you to fully glimpse the remarkable potential of the Cipressi vineyards in the La Court Estate