Winemaker Notes
The wine is best with second courses of red meat, simply grilled or roasted. Also good with hard and aged cheeses
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Leather, balsamic herbs, black fruit and spice aromas lead the nose. The delicious palate delivers ripe black cherry, crushed raspberry, licorice, cinnamon, black pepper and carob notes, balanced by bold but noble tannins and vibrant acidity. It needs years to fully develop and will age for decades. Drink 2020–2040. Cellar Selection.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Barolo Bricco Boschis is the flagship wine from this historic estate in Castiglione Falletto. The personality here is dark and brooding with savory aromas of cured meat and smoked bacon in a leading role. The intensity is bright and vibrant and the longer you contemplate the wine, the more it offers. Following a few swirls of the glass, you encounter sweet cherry, white almond skin, licorice and pressed rose. Still young, the wine shows enormous complexity. Its balanced structure and acidity would pair next to succulent lamb chops or any number of sophisticated meat recipes. Drink: 2016-2026.
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Wine Spectator
Wild, woodsy aromas of eucalyptus and juniper mark this muscular red. The rugged tannins set the pace, framing the cherry fruit and coating the gums on the finish. Stays long and energetic, with a mineral essence in the aftertaste. Best from 2018 through 2035.
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.