Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lots of dried fruits with mushroom and spice. Hints of oak. Full-bodied, chewy and structured. Needs at least three or four years of bottle age.
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Wine & Spirits
From Ginestra's marl and calcareous soils, this is rich and robustly structured. Initially reticent, with grippy tannins and dark tones, it opens slowly to reveal red and black berry flavors and notes of sage, tobacco, roasted fennel and spice. This will be best after six years in the cellar.
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Wine Enthusiast
This offers pretty aromas of perfumed dark berry, cake spice, leather, toast and a balsamic note. The full-bodied palate offers young red cherry, mint, oak, espresso and sage. Firm but velvety tannins and bright acidity provide the framework while a mocha note closes the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Notes of sweet vanilla and chocolate from new oak dominate, with the flavors of cherry, leather and licorice buried for now. Nonetheless, this red shows elegance and style. Sweet fruit lingers among the tannins. Best from 2018 through 2032.
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.