Cordero di Montezemolo Barolo Monfalletto 2011
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James
Suckling
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Winemaker Notes
This is an aristocratic wine that finds its ideal match in game, jugged hare, braised beef, chamois, roe buck saddle, wild boar, venison, and pigeon. Superb with dishes garnished with white truffles from Alba, like cardoon flan with fondue and duck ravioli.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is dense and rich with lots of fruit and intensity. Chewy tannins. Full and intense with a long, long finish of dried citrus and plums. Floral too. Structured and layered. Better 2017.
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2017-
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Since 1340, 19 generations one after another, have managed the Monfalletto property in the town of La Morra, the center of the production of Barolo wine.
Even today, the property is entirely family-run. Giovanni Cordero di Montezemolo and his children Elena and Alberto are the protagonists of this millennium.
The historical single-body vineyard area of 28 hectares (69 acres), rare for the area, extends over all sides of the hill. The land has always been cultivated with the various local varieties, selected and distinctly planted according to sun exposure, type of soil and the altitude.
In 1965 Paolo Cordero di Montezemolo obtained an important lot of old vines in the center of the famous Villero area in Catiglione Falletto. From this 2-hectares vineyard we pick the grapes for Barolo Enrico VI.
Over the years, further acquisitions and long-term leasing of vineyards have been made, not far from the winery headquarter and in the area of Alba and Roero.
Currently, the total vineyard area on which grapes are grown for the production of all Cordero di Montezemolo wines is 51 hectares (126 acres).
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo wine region includes five core townships: La Morra, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and the Barolo village itself, as well as a few outlying villages. The landscape of Barolo, characterized by prominent and castle-topped hills, is full of history and romance centered on the Nebbiolo grape. Its wines, with the signature “tar and roses” aromas, have a deceptively light garnet color but full presence on the palate and plenty of tannins and acidity. In a well-made Barolo wine, one can expect to find complexity and good evolution with notes of, for example, strawberry, cherry, plum, leather, truffle, anise, fresh and dried herbs, tobacco and violets.
There are two predominant soil types here, which distinguish Barolo from the lesser surrounding areas. Compact and fertile Tortonian sandy marls define the vineyards farthest west and at higher elevations. Typically the Barolo wines coming from this side, from La Morra and Barolo, can be approachable relatively early on in their evolution and represent the “feminine” side of Barolo, often closer in style to Barbaresco with elegant perfume and fresh fruit.
On the eastern side of the Barolo wine region, Helvetian soils of compressed sandstone and chalks are less fertile, producing wines with intense body, power and structured tannins. This more “masculine” style comes from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba. The township of Castiglione Falletto covers a spine with both soil types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.