Winemaker Notes
This kind of wine is perfect to pair with pasta based dished, especially dressed with meat sauce, also good with ravioli pasta, red meats, roasts, stews, and cheeses of medium seasoning.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Star anise, Asian spice, crushed herb and red berry aromas meld together in the glass. The refined luminous palate delivers crushed red cherry, tart cranberry, white pepper and clove framed in bright acidity and elegant fine-grained tannins. Drink 2018–2024.
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James Suckling
An elegant Barbaresco which shows morello cherries, treacle tart, dark plums and lavender. Medium to full body, fine tannins and a fresh finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Barbaresco Tradizione is a nicely centered wine that offers a solid array of ripe fruit flavors with cherry and red currant in pole position. As I have discovered with other Barbaresco wines from 2014, the fruit is surprisingly opulent and soft considering the below average temperatures that persisted throughout the summer season. Those plump characteristics are followed by moderate touches of spice, tar and smoke.
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.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.