Winemaker Notes
Medium garnet in color with reddish-brown reflections, intense aromas of black cherries, dried roses, licorice, and potpourri pour out of the glass. The aging regime on this wine has made the tannins velvety without taking away from the wine’s age worthiness.
Pairs well with elegant dishes such as perfectly-grilled steaks with red wine sauces, slow-braised beef with pearl onions, and roasted lamb shanks.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2018 Barbaresco Riserva Albesani Santo Stefano is a powerful, brooding wine. There's more oak impact here, and that leaves the wine feeling too constricted, like a person wearing a piece of clothing that is one size too small. Dark macerated cherry, spice, leather and tobacco open gradually. The Riserva is not a bad wine, far from it. But there is quite a bit more potential here.
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Jeb Dunnuck
There is more mineral lift in the 2018 Barbaresco Riserva Santo Stefano, with anise, fresh wet stone, and wild strawberry. Approachable sweet berries coax across the palate with ease, with menthol and floral perfume, and it is elegant, refined, and drinking wonderfully now. Drink 2024-2040.
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.