Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Underbrush, new leather and balsamic notes of camphor lead the nose along with a whiff of prune. The full-bodied palate shows the heat of the vintage but is still savory, offering dried cherry, marinated prune, licorice and tobacco alongside fine-grained tannins.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Barbaresco Riserva Santo Stefano is richer with extract while remaining medium-bodied, with more warmth and a spiced feel in its notes of red plum, leather, tea leaf, and bergamot. It has a ripe, present tannin structure and is a little more approachable in terms of its acidity. Ripe with red cherry, forest herbs, and leather, it is in a good place for drinking now or over the next 10 to 15 years.
-
Wine Spectator
Camphor and tar flavors highlight this firmly tannic red. With air, ripe plum and cherry notes emerge and this finds its equilibrium. A rustic style. Best from 2023 through 2040.
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.