Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a very powerful Barolo with lots of tar and berry character. Hazelnuts and walnuts, too. It’s full-bodied, layered and rich.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Ca' Rome' 2016 Barolo Rapet (with 4,000 bottles released) offers savory or meaty aromas that accompany dark fruit, plum and dried blackberry. This wine is muscular, deep and shows a dark and concentrated quality of fruit. There is some extra ripeness here as well. Located in Serralunga d'Alba, the Rapet vineyard sees compact calcareous soils with alternating layers of clay and sand. The vines are planted at 350 to 370 meters above sea level, where cool nighttime temperatures help to block in that Nebbiolo freshness.
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Wine Spectator
An enticing combination of rose, strawberry, cherry and currant fruit are the hallmarks of this Barolo, plus savory elements of wild thyme, broom and fennel. Sleek and firmly structured, with dense, dusty tannins. Best from 2023 through 2045.
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.