Winemaker Notes
Intense garnet red color with a rich and composite bouquet of sweet spices, dried flowers, leather and undergrowth. Harmonious and well-structured with elegant tannins and great balance and complexity. An elegant and powerful wine at the same time.
Try it with roasted, skewered and grilled red meats and ripe cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With a really fun retro-looking label, the Ascheri 2019 Barolo shows a classic playlist of Nebbiolo aromas with redcurrant, iris, rusty nail and licorice. The wine sits well on the palate, even at this young stage, thanks to fresh acidity and integrated tannins. This is a good-looking bottle for near and medium-term consumption. Fruit is blended from La Morra, Verduno and Serralunga d'Alba.
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Wine Spectator
A taut red, with hay and grass aromas giving way to cherry, strawberry, earth and iron flavors. This has all the components in the right place, with a firm structure and lightly astringent finish. Shows fine harmony and length. Best from 2026 through 2042.
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.