Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Fermented with its indigenous yeast and macerated for 40 days with a submerged cap, then aged in large oak casks for 24 months. The fruit is restrained, cherry kernel-like, with sweet violet, balsamic hints and rhubarb minerality. Savoury on the palate, it shows velvety tannins of significant extraction with long-lasting acidity. A wine focused on the roots rather than on the fruits; restrained, mineral and of great austere elegance.
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James Suckling
Lemon blossom with cherry and sliced strawberry aromas that follow through to a medium body, with firm and lightly austere tannins and a bright finish. Cedar and orange peel to the fruit. Needs time to soften.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
San Rocco is a small MGA located on the northern side of Serralunga d'Alba with steep slopes that open toward Cerretta with clay and limestone. The 2019 Barolo San Rocco (with 7,300 bottles made) benefits from tighter space and a protected microclimate to produce powerful wines. However, this vintage certainly needs more time in bottle and is nowhere near expressing its full potential now. The bouquet is rigid and unyielding at this time. This is a characteristic of San Rocco. Rating: 94+
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Wine Spectator
Broad and fleshy, this red evokes cherry, plum, menthol and tar flavors underlined by a layer of stiff tannins. Compact, with a lightly astringent finish. Best from 2027 through 2042. 600 cases made, 180 cases imported.
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.
