Winemaker Notes
This Barolo has a ruby red color, spicy hints, dry and full taste.
Delicious with main courses of meat, braised meat and bacon.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Liste in the commune of Barolo forms the backbone of the estate's Riserva but it is also presented as this cru bottling. Bordered by woodlands which create cooling breezes, Andrea notes that temperatures here are around three degrees lower than the town of Barolo itself. Fragrant with cherry, flowers and balsamic freshness, it's intense and finely tannic yet light on its feet. Pretty tangy raspberry, cranberry and cherry fruits mingle with violets, earth and exotic spices. Elegant and long.
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Wine Enthusiast
Loaded with finesse, this wine has enticing aromas of rose, woodland berry, pine forest and herbs. Elegantly structured, the delicious palate delivers juicy Marasca cherry, raspberry compote, star anise and wild mint framed in tightly knit, polished tannins. Fresh acidity keeps it well-balanced. Drink 2022–2036.
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James Suckling
Dried fruit with orange peel and spice on the nose. Full-to medium-bodied with rather firm, austere tannins and a chewy finish. Slightly dry at the end. Needs time to soften. Try after 2024.
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Wine Spectator
A mix of plum, leather and earth mark this solidly-built red. Beefy tannins lend support as this evolves on the palate to a tightly-wound finish. Best from 2024 through 2038.
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.