Winemaker Notes
The best wines from Cannubi are perfumed, elegant in structure, complex, and distinctive, and Brezza’s bottling is a great example. For Barolo, one of the world’s most age-worthy red wines, these wines are relatively drinkable young, but they age superbly.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Cannubi has a voice, and the Brezza family spent 2022 making sure every note of it was heard. Cherry, clove, allspice and heady warmed flowers arrive with a purity and lift that feel almost effortless, the kind of expression a vineyard only gives when the work behind it has been meticulous. Then comes the energy, tart red fruit driving through fine tannins and dried herbs before landing on something extraordinary, earth that has been baked by the sun, cracked open and releasing all that cool, mineral depth from below. Drink now through 2055.
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Decanter
Fourth-generation Enzo Brezza has long been at the helm, and his wines are unwaveringly linear and firm. The 2022 Cannubi does not stray, but it is perhaps a bit more forthcoming in its youth. Alluring aromas of rose, violet and peony are pure and deep. More characteristically discreet, the palate eventually opens to raspberry and brambles as well as salty, salivating minerals. Tannins are more rigid than supple, but ultimately on the right side of dryness. This will need food and a bit more time in bottle.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Brezza 2022 Barolo Cannubi (a certified organic wine) is beautifully open and fleshed out even at this young stage, with delicate floral aromas that frame a core of red fruits. This is a lovely wine, and although there has been much discussion about the effects of climate change on Cannubi—one of the appellation's most precious and potentially vulnerable MGAs due to its lower elevation, inclines and quick-draining sandy soils—this bottle remains a testament to the classic character of the site. Produced from vines ranging from 19 to 32 years of age, the wine is especially expressive and accessible at this stage. It is more "ready" than some of its peers, but that is all the more reason to enjoy it in the near term. The tannins are pleasantly chalky, lending focus and definition to the finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Sourced from sandy soils in Barolo, the 2022 Barolo Cannubi pours a pale red-orange hue. Aromatically, it’s subtle and refined, with roses, pomegranate, delicate incense, and spice. On the palate, it’s savory and vertical, with fine-grained tannins, bright acidity, and a saline edge that carries the finish. This captures Cannubi’s linear side. Drink 2026-2035.
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Vinous
The 2022 Barolo Cannubi is laced with sweet red-toned fruit, cedar, worn-in leather, licorice and dried herbs. Readers will find a potent, strapping Cannubi. It will be interesting to see if this finds more finesse with time in bottle. Great vintages show delineation— the 2022 is a bit blurry.
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.