Winemaker Notes
Vibrant garnet red in color. Delicately perfumed with aromas of ripe red berries and rose petals. Medium bodied and balanced with well structured tannin. Ideal with well matured cheeses, duck, polenta and truffle dishes.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Multiple layers of black and red cherries, plums, roses and violets in a backdrop of toast and tar. The tannins are confident yet mellow, the acidity lifted and grippy and the finish is long and empowering.
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James Suckling
This Barolo shows precision and elegance, with Parma violets, cinnamon, red currants, red cherries, earth and smoke on the nose. Full-bodied, it offers fine-tuned tannins, juicy acidity and a savory palate enhanced by a restrained blood-orange aftertaste. Almost drinkable now, but best from 2027.
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Wine Enthusiast
Like a shy guest finding their voice, this Barolo opens to reveal dark and tart cherries wrapped in velvet. Pine needles, blooming roses, and incense float above, while the palate moves with rich yet vibrant energy. The wine shifts from lush fruit to earthy depths, calling for hearty fare at the table.
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.