From the Langhe to the world: Ceretto’s Barolo and Barbaresco crus on La Place de Bordeaux

If French wine is capable of doubling the economy of Italian wine, much of the credit goes to an extraordinary distribution network capable of capitalizing on the country’s wine excellence. La Place de Bordeaux is the oldest and most important, capable of supporting and growing the fine wine market all over the world. It has now become a hub capable of welcoming hundreds of producers, as well as a network of 300 negociants who sell in 170 different countries. A club for the few, serving exclusively Bordeaux Grands Crus until 1998, when it welcomed the Chilean brand Almaviva, owned by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild (Château Mouton-Rothschild).
A breach that has allowed dozens of Italian companies to land on the Place from 2009 to today, indicating that there are no longer only French wines on the international fine wine market. Tuscany and Piedmont have carved out an increasingly significant space for themselves, as evidenced by the upcoming arrival on La Place de Bordeaux of Ceretto’s iconic Barolo and Barbaresco, one of Langhe’s most representative brands. It is a new chapter in the winery’s commercial history for the winery led by Roberta Ceretto, together with her brother Federico and cousins Alessandro and Lisa, that will strengthen the distribution strategy of its top labels on a global level, in the most important places in Asia, Europe (Italy excluded), and South America, relying on the experience and knowledge of some Bordeaux negociants such as Joanne Cvbg, Ulysse Cazabon, Vin & Passion Cost.
At the same time, in addition to Ceretto, Giacomo Borgogno & Figli, led by Andrea Farinetti, also entrusted the Place de Bordeaux with the global distribution, with the exception of the Italian market, of its Barolo crus: “Cannubi Riserva” from the 2009 vintages, 2011 and 2012 and “Liste Riserva” of 2009, 2012 and 2014 vintages, which will pass through wine merchants such as Ballande & Meneret, CVBG, Sobovi, and Millésima. “Making our debut on La Place de Bordeaux means joining an exclusive club of the world’s most prestigious wines”, commented Andrea Farinetti.
Going back to the beginning of the history of Italian brands on the Place de Bordeaux, it all begins in 2010 with the slow but unstoppable revolution of the fine wine market. At the time, Bordeaux labels dominated the secondary market for fine wines, accounting for 95.7% of trades in terms of value. A year before, in 2009, La Place welcomed the first wine with no ties to Bordeaux: Masseto 2006. A milestone on the road to change.
Thus, La Place and the secondary market for fine wines appear to be moving in lockstep: Bordeaux and the en primeur system have lost ground, while demand has increased on all fronts, from the domestic (Burgundy, Champagne, and Rhône) to the external (Italy, USA, Spain, and beyond). As a result, La Place began to look around, always focusing on labels of enormous prestige. Which, for their part, have nearly always established a profitable relationship with the French distribution system. The nearly is related to those cases (actually few) in which the company has given priority to the price rather than the construction of a global brand.
Italy on La Place, on the other hand, is not just Masseto. After France, it is by far the most represented. Ornellaia, Ornellaia Bianco, Serre Nuove, Le Volte, and Poggio alle Gazze, exclusively for Asia, the United Arab Emirates, Africa, and South America, also pass through the Place de Bordeaux. As well as the Solaia, and, in small quantities, also the Tignanello and the Cervaro della Sala of the Antinori family, and still three legendary labels of wine-making Tuscany, such as the Colore of Bibi Graetz, the Galatrona of Petrolo, a company symbol of the Val d’Arno di Sopra by Luca Sanjust and the Caiarossa. In 2018 the Orma also landed on La Place de Bordeaux, the Supertuscan born from the Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc vineyards of Podere Orma, the Bolgheri brand of Tenuta Sette Ponti, the Tuscan company of Antonio Moretti Cuseri which, two years later, makes an encore with the Oreno, accompanied, from October, by the first vintage (2019) of the latest born at Tenuta Sette Ponti: “Sette”.
In 2019, however, it was the turn of the first Brunelli di Montalcino, with the wines of Luce della Vite, also by Frescobaldi, followed by Brunello and the IGT “La Quinta” by Giodo, the Tuscan winery of the oenologist Carlo Ferrini. Two labels that, unlike all the others, La Place markets all over the world, only with the obvious exception of the Italian market. More recently, the debut of the first Etna Rosso, that of Giovanni Rosso, the historic Langa brand, from which comes the first Barolo (and first Piedmont label), Michele Chiarlo’s Barolo Cerequio 2018, brought to the French distribution network by Timothée Moreau (Bureau des Grands Vins), who directed the two other fundamental entrances: I Sodi di S. Niccolò 2018 of Castellare di Castellina and the two crus of Allegrini, La Poja 2017 and Fieramonte 2015, i.e. the first Amarones on La Place.