Winemaker Notes
Bricco Fiasco shows perfectly the radiant personality of Castiglione Falletto. Extremely perfumed, floral, with a core of red fruit. Rich, warm, intensely fresh.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A firm, fine-grained red with plum, mahogany, iron and bark on the nose and palate. It’s full-bodied with a dusty texture from the tannins. Flavorful finish. Needs time to soften, but a beautiful young Barolo. Try after 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A product of 85-plus-year-old vines in Castiglione Falletto, the Azelia 2017 Barolo Bricco Fiasco is subdued and delicate, with linear fruit of wild plum and blackberry, plus hints of blue flower and pressed violet. The age of the vines and the depth of the root system in the loose soils of this site have helped to maintain balance and freshness during the hottest moments of this vintage. Indeed, this wine is more immediately silky in texture compared to Azelia's wines from Serralunga d'Alba (like the Barolo Margheria also reviewed in this report). This release of 5,600 bottles presents a nice opportunity to try your hand at a delicate rabbit ravioli for a very special occasion a few years from now.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Barolo Bricco Fiasco has ripe aromatics of red plum, baking spice, rose petal, and cedar. The palate is fuller in body, with juicy black cherry, cola, and balsamic as well as ripe tannins. Of the Azelia 2017s, this is a touch more open-knit and approachable for an ever-so-slightly earlier drinking option.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dried berry, pressed rose, star anise and botanical herb aromas slowly take shape in the glass. Elegant and austere, the firm palate features tart cherry, blood orange, licorice and tobacco alongside tightly knit, refined tannins that leave an assertive finish. It definitely needs more time to fully unwind and develop. Drink 2027–2032
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Wine & Spirits
Vines averaging 85 years of age gave a deeply concentrated wine, its black-cherry and raspberry flavors packed with notes of menthol and warm spice. Powerful tannins keep the flavors aligned as those spice notes linger on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
This savory red offers a mix of muddled plum, licorice, tar, leather and earth aromas and flavors. Firm, yet ripe tannins lend support. Overall this is balanced and long.
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.
