Winemaker Notes
The wine displays an intense garnet red color with dark ruby reflections, a complex nose of licorice, forest berries, cinnamon, cloves, and violet, full and enveloping tannins, and a long finish recalling ripe fruit, making it an excellent match for meat, game, and cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose exudes classic and pretty aromas of crushed cherries and raspberry with hints of orange peel and roses. The palate is textured and driven by flavors of fruits of the forest, wild thyme and camphor, adding to its complexity. Drink 2025–2040.
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Wine Spectator
Though not that expressive today, this red is saturated with cherry, earth and iron flavors, accented with mint and rosemary. Firmly built, this persists on the aftertaste, with fresh cherry and berry notes. Best from 2027 through 2045. 325 cases imported.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Also from Rio Sordo, the 2020 Barbaresco Rio Sordo displays a sllightly deeper ruby color and has a sunnier feel, although it remains red-fruited and bright, with notes of ripe raspberries, candied roses, tea leaf, tangerine, and sweet licorice. Medium-bodied, it’s rounder and more approachable, with ripe tannins and a clean, well-balanced finish. This is another well done wine from the Ca' Rome'team to drink over the next 10 years.
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.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.