Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From 40-year-old vines that enjoy southern exposures, the 2010 Barolo Sori Ginestra is the estate’s most complete and powerful wine. You can tell that the wine is shaped by rich, compact soils similar to what is found in the Mosconi cru. Barolo Sori Ginestra is a generous, richly textured wine with juicy tannins and a succulent mouthfeel. The tannins are not aggressive, but they do leave their mark. Overall, the wine’s sugars, alcohol, fruit and acidity are expertly balanced.
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Wine Spectator
Deftly oaked, this red shows hints of vanilla and toast complementing its cherry, menthol, black pepper, leather and light tar flavors. Firm and graceful, more savory than fruity, with solid grip on the spice-tinged finish. Best from 2017 through 2032.
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James Suckling
Aromas of blackberry, mushroom and cherry. Full body with tannins that are chewy but polished and well-crafted. A balanced red. Better in 2017.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dense and richly structured, this opens with black cherry, rose, leather and asphalt aromas. The concentrated palate offers succulent black cherry, crushed red raspberry, orange peel, sage, toasted oak, espresso and vanilla alongside brisk acidity. Astringent wood tannins leave the mouth feeling dried out. Drink after 2018.
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.