Winemaker Notes
Aromas of rose petal and baking spices on the nose, following through on the palate along with flavors of ripe cherry and strawberry. Elegant tannins with a long finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Chunky, ripe berries on the nose and palate, colored by thick, spicy notes that combine with the lightly firm tannins to give a plump, velvety texture on the full-bodied palate. Ends with a chocolate-cherry, almost liqueur-like note. Good concentration for 2018. Works well. Fun to try now, but hold for a year for better integration.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Bovio 2018 Barolo (with fruit from La Morra and Castiglione Falletto) delivers a very bright and lifted bouquet with cassis, wild fruit and hints of dried apricot or apple skin. I love the intensity and inner drive of this classic Barolo. The wine offers good freshness and silky tannins over a mid-weight approach. This wine is also quite immediate and ready to drink in the near or medium term.
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.