Winemaker Notes
The esposition and soil composition endow this wine with both structure and tannins suitable for a long aging. The bouquet presents complex aromas of berry marmalade and brandied cherries, with detectable spicy notes.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Agostino Bosco 2016 Barolo La Serra draws its fruit from La Morra, a subzone known for its silky tannins and elegant Nebbiolo aromas. This wine shows those qualities very nicely, perhaps adding extra power and fruit definition that is characteristic of the 2016 growing season. I do notice that the tannic presence of the wine is well developed, suggesting that this vintage could use extra years in the cellar to better unwind and soften. Dark cherry fruit is followed by licorice, dried orange peel and pressed rose.
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Wine Enthusiast
Intense aromas of rose petal, new leather and tobacco emerge from the glass. The taut balanced palate offers raspberry, sour cherry, toasted hazelnut and licorice alongside youthfully austere tannins and fresh acidity. Drink 2025–2033.
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.