Winemaker Notes
It is the first Barolo cru of Amalia Cascina in Langa, a version produced from a selection of grapes from the prestigious Le Coste vineyard in Monforte d'Alba. The vineyard has clayey marly soils, rich in limestone, which give the vineyards the ability to create a Barolo with structure and volume, soft yet warm and pleasant on the palate.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
This estate's top vineyards are in Monforte. Its succulent Bussia in this vintage is surpassed by the Coste di Monforte, which is produced from 1ha at 400 metres. The raspberry-scented nose is sweet and intense and shows finesse. It's the balance that impresses here: rich and full-bodied, weighty but not too extracted, with polished tannins and great concentration. The finish is spicy, intense, complex and long. Drinking Window 2020 - 2040
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Amalia Cascina in Langa 2016 Barolo Le Coste di Monforte offers a very floral bouquet with some greener aromas like you get with fresh shoots on springtime garden growth. It's all very pleasant and uplifting. The wine presents a very fresh and youthful set of aromas with white flowers, forest berry and a touch of sweet peach or nectarine. Dig a little deeper and you will find subtle hints of white licorice, spice and crushed stone. The wine needs time to take shape, as this initial showing is very focused on primary aromas both floral and fruity. The wine's overall personality is light and compact, and it will flesh out in time. However, those cool-vintage Nebbiolo tannins kick in at the end and remind you that this is a Barolo built to last, no matter how soft and delicate its bouquet may appear at this stage.
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.