Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Wonderful aromas of crushed berries and flowers here. Particularly roses. Full body, with fine yet chewy tannins and a long intense finish. Needs four or five years to open. Best wine ever from here? Better in 2018.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Barolo Enrico VI sees fruit sourced from the celebrated Villero cru in Castiglione Falletto. It’s hard not to be enthusiastically impressed by this gorgeous effort. The fruit is stunning and dark with a deep, penetrating level of aromatic intensity that spans from creme de cassis to dried licorice root. In the mouth, it is extraordinarily bright and silky and the seamless finish can be counted in long, delicious minutes. A special nod goes the high energy and vibrant quality of this beautiful Barolo. Drink: 2016-2026.
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Wine Enthusiast
This structured, vibrant Barolo opens with a medley of scents including violet, leather, black cherry, thyme and toast. The palate delivers candied cherry accented with mocha, orange peel and clove alongside brisk acidity and fine tannins. Drink after 2020.
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Wine Spectator
Balance, elegance, fruit and a dense texture are the hallmarks of this red. Cherry, plum, leather and spice flavors prevail as this tightens up on the finish. Well-proportioned and built for the long haul. 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.