2018 Ferrando Carema Etichetta Bianca

About This Wine

Carema is alpine Nebbiolo of breathtaking grace. For decades, Ferrando's Carema has been the benchmark for the beauty and profundity that Nebbiolo achieves in the northern extremes. In these northern reaches of Piedmont, the vintage produced wines of incredible purity and class. Ferrando's Carema is Nebbiolo at its purest, its most energetic, and its most aromatic. At high altitudes, in the shadows of Mt. Blanc, on soil that's pretty much eroded rock, the grape assumes a level of finesse that's gorgeous and hauntingly singular.

Riper vintages, like 2018, always give the wine an extra dimension, without sacrificing all the mountain lake freshness of this wine. The 2018 is a high-voltage Carema that is brisk, silken, redolent of roses, fresh sweet herbs, perfumed cherry fruits, pomegranate, tinges of smoke, and crushed rock. It is dark fruited with plenty of impact and also plenty of finesse. Today, Alto Piemonte is one of the most exciting places for wine, and there's no doubt that Ferrando's wines were essential in establishing the area's reputation in the U.S.

Credit has to be given to Ferrando's importer, Neal Rosenthal, who has never been shy about his love of Ferrando's wines. He has no shortage of great wines at his fingertips - think of people like Fourrier and Barthod. Yet he's written: "When I am asked which wine would I choose were I to be restricted to a single one, my answer is: Carema."errando's Carema's lightness of color and body belies the distance that it can go in the cellar. It's a wine that ages on its balance and overall harmony. Nebbiolo ages long and gracefully, and there are many tales of outstanding bottles of Ferrando White Label at 15 and even 20+ years old.