Winemaker Notes
Intense ruby red. The nose is intense, complex, red fruit, vanilla, herbs, china root, and mint. The palate is very pleasant, evident but silky tannins, the aroma comes back in the aftertaste.
Pairs well with seasoned cheese, red meat, game, and dishes with truffle.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of smoke, bark, ash and ripe berries follow through to a full body with chewy tannins and an underlying focus of fruit, berry and earth. It’s tight, tannic and very long. Give it three or four years to come together. Try after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The classic Carlo Revello & Figli 2016 Barolo represents a blend of fruit from La Morra (the part that adds fragrant intensity to the bouquet) and Serralunga d'Alba, the part that adds structure and power. You get aromas of crushed cherries and dried violets that I would associate with La Morra, but I also pick up on the ferrous or earthy aromas that I associate with Serralunga d'Alba. This vintage shows power, with tannins folded into the rich structure of the wine.
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.