Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
From the first sniff, the significance of this wine is evident. Dark cherry, rosebud, clove and savory herbs create an enveloping aroma. The polished and pure palate offers generosity, yet yearns for further development. Presently, flavors of mixed wild berries, licorice, tobacco and chalk notes shine on the palate. Drink 2025–2050.
Cellar Selection -
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Barolo Cannubi displays a more lush expression on the nose, with notes of framboise, fresh leather, licorice, and rosemary. Weightless on the palate, it reveals plush, supple tannins, a highly graceful feel, and a fresh floral finish. It’s the most approachable of the single cru wines in this vintage but is going to have an incredibly wide drinking window.
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James Suckling
So perfumed and pure with sliced strawberries, fresh flowers and clean sand. Very typical and reminiscent of the soils. Medium-bodied with very fine tannins and caressing texture. Shows intensity and focus at the end but remains refined and elegant. Reserved. From organically grown grapes. Try after 2028.
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Wine Spectator
Though taut and leaning to the firm, austere side in the balance, this red also shows ample cherry, raspberry, mineral, hay and eucalyptus flavors aligned to an elegant frame. This wine's tannins dominate the finish for now, so be patient. Best from 2027 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.