Tasting notes:
Intense, deep ruby color. Pronounced concentrated aroma of ripe raspberry and red cherry fruit, combined with spicy and mineral notes and a touch of vanilla and toast. Full-bodied on the palate, quite rich, with lush fruit that is well balanced with the acidity, good integration of oak and a long lingering aftertaste.
Reviews:
93 Points, Robert Parker
"The Vietti 2018 Barbera d'Asti La Crena sees its fruit sourced from very old vines with some of the plants approaching the 100-year-old mark. This is a rich and darkly concentrated wine with a lovely bouquet that is lifted and bright. The wine reveals dark cherry fruit, raw blackberry and plum. That opulent, old-vine fruit drowns out much of the acidic sharpness of the grape."
94 points, VINOUS
"The 2018 Barbera d'Asti La Crena is a powerful, tightly wound wine. Readers should be in no rush here. In 2019, La Crena is a bit reticent and less opulent than it can be, but then again, this is a wine that only blossoms with a few years in bottle. Inky dark fruit, gravel, smoke, crushed rocks, spice and lavender open with air, but only reluctantly. The 2018 will be a jewel for those who can wait."