Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
This is drinking so beautifully now with so much plum, licorice, and berry character. It's full body and very soft with polished tannins and a super long finish. The round texture ad decadent fruit is wonderful.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Darker and deeper in color than the Falletto, even more potent and penetrating on the nose, explosive on the palate with a medley of sweet fruit, licorice, mint, chocolate, and tar, the full-throttle 1999 Barolo Rocche di Falletto, tightly wound but oh so sumptuous and rich on the finish and aftertaste, rivals the legendary 1996 Barolo Falletto Riserva.
-
Wine Spectator
Offers amazing aromas of blueberry and raspberry, with hints of strawberry tart. Full-bodied, showing chewy, powerful tannins and plenty of fruit. A powerful, youthful, slightly austere wine, with a great future.
-
Wine Enthusiast
It seems Giacosa's wines are often difficult to taste young, which leads us to wonder later whether we haven't underestimated them. Relatively unexpressive on the nose, this wine reveals only hints of leather, cherries and citrus peel. But in the mouth, the quality is evidenced by a gradual building of intensity to a crescendo on the finish, where dried cherries, underbrush, mushroom, leather and citrus explode into dazzling length and intensity.
Cellar Selection
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.