Winemaker Notes
Garnet ruby red in color with orange reflections. The bouquet is ample and embracing, with pronounced fruity notes of cherry and plum and notes of tobacco, licorice and cocoa. On the palate, the wine is harmonious, pleasantly dry with soft tannins, broad and full-bodied. Persistent finish.
Cannubi is a sumptuous wine, perfect with the full-flavored Piedmontese cuisine such as white truffle -based dishes and braised meat. Ideal with the refined dishes of the great international gastronomy.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This classic, concentrated and meaty wine offers lean red fruits, beef jus and fine-grained tannins. Vibrant acidity deftly lifts the flavors and livens the texture for an elegance that will also stand the test of time. Best from 2028.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is my favorite bottle among this collection of new releases from the Damilano family. The 2020 Barolo Cannubi represents a much bigger production than you might expect, with 35,000 bottles created. Aged in large oak cask, it offers good focus in terms of its aromatic intensity and complete aromas of dark fruit, rusty nail, crushed stone and grilled herb. Perhaps its robust power and concentration takes away from the lightness and finesse of Nebbiolo, but it gives the wine a heavier overall footprint that will pair well with grilled meats.
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Wine Spectator
There's refinement to this red, along with a solid structure. This sets the stage for sour cherry, orange peel, tamarind, iron, earth and eucalyptus flavors. The tannins dominate on the finish, with a lightly astringent feel, yet this is long. Best from 2027 through 2043.
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Wine Enthusiast
This Barolo is a lush, rich wine with a firm structure. Roasted earth and sun-baked black cherries, figs, dates, and plums dominate the palate, accompanied by warm cinnamon and nutmeg. The complexity is impressive, with layers of flavor unfolding blending lush fruits with savory herbs, cherry wood, anise and clove. A wine of substance and depth with tannins that both reflective the grape and the vintage. Drink Now - 2038.
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.