Winemaker Notes
Wine with deep garnet red color and persistent aromas of ripe fruit, flowers and spices. Subtly reminiscent of wood, its main characteristic, the typical aromas of Nebbiolo blend to create a sensation of rare elegance. Powerful, elegant and charming, it has a full-bodied palate of great intensity. All the notes in the nose are harmonically enhanced making this a wine to be remembered.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Batasiolo produces wines from various regions in Piedmont, including a number of Barolos, with an annual total production of 2.5 million bottles. Briccolina is among their best, coming from a small west-facing site in Serralunga. The cherry-scented nose is robust and rather subdued at present, while the palate is fleshy and concentrated in style, ripe and creamy with good depth of fruit and impressive tannic grip. The fruit comes through on the finish, suggesting this should evolve well.
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James Suckling
Aromas of smoke, bark, terracotta and berries follow through to a full body, round, chewy tannins with a hint of dust and a flavorful finish. Better in 2021, but already attractive to drink if you don’t mind the tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Of the wines presented this year by Beni di Batasiolo, the 2015 Barolo Briccolina is the most powerful and structured. That's because fruit comes from Serralunga d'Alba where soils are thicker and denser, resulting in more concentrated fruit upon harvest. The wine is succulent and velvety in this hot vintage with thick layers of red fruit, plum and prune. This wine is aged in equal parts barrique and botte grande.
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.