Fletcher Wines
(Image: Dave Fletcher - Fletcher Wines / by Jason Lowe - www.jasonlowe.eu)

 

About

For the Wines

"I consider myself lucky to be making wines in the Langhe and even luckier that I have no legacy to follow. It's led to a freedom to play and deconstruct tradition, all in an attempt to start afresh without any boundaries. I'm on a constant search for great vineyards, and always trying to make wines that give a sense of passion and place. Not all of them are single vineyards, because I think great things can come from careful crafting. Not all the wines will be produced each year either, as nature dictates most of what I do.
I use everything I've learnt from my experiences of making wine and working in the vineyards around the world, pulling out the methodology that I believe in and then injecting a few twists and turns.......Hopefully it all works for you!
For those that need to know.....
I use 100% spontaneous fermentation but with a 'pied de cuve' method. I use old wood in the form of Barriques and Botte Grande. Sometimes I have to buy new wood to get old wood and this gets used on the X-blend and the Chardonnay. I never, ever, filter the wines or use fining agents!

​In the Vineyards

50% of the vineyards I work with are certified organic and the other half is under conversion. As a day job I work for one of the biggest Biodynamic producers in Barolo and Barbaresco. I believe 100% in these techniques for my own grape production and strive for better health and lower impact for the vines and their surroundings. Not wanting to contribute to an ever increasing mono-culture in the Langhe, I offset the land used for my grape production with ownership of the equivalent area in Forest, swamp and grasslands rich in biodiversity." - Fletcher Wines

2022 Langhe Nebbiolo DOC

Previously released as Nebbiolo d’Alba, this name can no longer be used as Dave has started adding grapes from his own vineyard within the Barbaresco designation from the 2020 vintage. He finds the wine now has a little more structure and freshness, and so felt the declassification to the much broader Langhe Nebbiolo was justified.

As with all his wines, it is made with gentle extraction and focus on the aromatics in preference to colour and tannin. Open fermented with wild yeasts, and aged for 12 months in 10 year old barriques. Dave considers Langhe Nebbiolo a good indication of what Barolo and Barbaresco will be like from the vintage, but with intense fruit as a result of being released earlier than its well known counterparts.

100% Nebbiolo from two different zones. Roero and Barbaresco. 100% destemmed. Open ferment, very little plunging, every 2 to 3 days. No post ferment soak. Old wood. 300ltr hogshead. Elevage for 12 to 14 months.

Walter Speller for Jancis Robinson

Barbaresco 2021 – too much of a good thing is wonderful

A great vintage for Nebbiolo in Barbaresco, from entry-level to cru wines. Come back on Friday for the tasting notes. Above, the view from Barbaresco towards Guarene.

"Tasting the newly released 2021 Barbarescos I kept thinking of that famous Liberace quote, ‘Too much of a good thing is wonderful’, which he actually borrowed from Mae West. Whatever its origin, it fully applies to the wines I tasted from this vintage. It reminded me of 2016, another great year in which I felt that Barbaresco had finally committed fully to a style that didn’t try to emulate the supposed power and concentration of Barolo, their immediate neighbour, but set on elegance and transparency. 

Once considered ‘lighter’, ‘more feminine’ (the latter description being one of my pet peeves) and earlier drinking, Barbaresco was reduced to an also-ran, to which many a producer reacted by making ‘bigger’ wines. With 2016 came the turning point, on which the ever-communicative Angelo Gaja commented, saying that the perceived lightness of Barbaresco is in fact its strength.

I would even say that this just-released vintage reminds me a little of both 2016 and 2019. That is not hyperbole, because while tasting the 99 wines I handed out high scores like I was Father Christmas. Not only is the technical standard very high, but also, for now, prices are still extremely reasonable for the quality the region delivers. Overall, I didn’t taste a single mediocre wine – the hallmark of a great vintage."

2021 Barbaresco Recta Pete DOCG

 

Review by Walter Speller for Jancis Robinson

"Lustrous mid ruby. Crushed red-fruit nose with a hint of eucalyptus, dark spices. Cool yet concentrated red fruit underpinned by firm, but ripe tannins. Youthful energy." (WS)

 14%

Drink  2024 – 2032

17 +

2021 Barbaresco Faset (SOLD OUT)

Review by Walter Speller for Jancis Robinson

"Barbaresco. Youthful, just mid ruby. Brooding, concentrated fruit on the nose that needs time to open up and with a really stony, iron-like component. Still a little embryonic on the palate, too, with shy, yet very pure fruit. Gorgeous fresh acidity. Still needs an additional year, but this is a spectacular Barbaresco that’s set on elegance and with finely ground, long tannins. Wired." (WS)

 14%

Drink 2025 – 2036

18

2021 Barbaresco Roncaglie (SOLD OUT)

"Roncaglie is one of the most significant Cru’s in Barbaresco, David considers the site very much a ‘Grand Cru’ of the village. In 2019 David was granted the right to bottle under the Roncaglie cru as opposed to Barbaresco DOCG. David explains that the plot he sources from in Roncaglie is South West facing, a little more shaded so longer hang time & more ferrous soils resulting in dark fruits, more masculine tannin. 

This wine is 100% destemmed. Goes into open fermenter after cuvaison, it is pressed to barrel. Elevage in old oak, over 10 years old, 300ltr barrels. Barbaresco can only be released on the 3rd January following harvest, giving the wine approx. 27 months total aging. David ages his wines for 24 months in barrel (legally it only needs be 12 as a minimum) then 3 months in bottle." - Kent St Cellars

(Image: Dave Fletcher - Fletcher Wines / www.fletcherwines.com)

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