Winemaker Notes
This is an aristocratic wine that finds its ideal match in game, jugged hare, braised beef, chamois, roe buck saddle, wild boar, venison, and pigeon. Superb with dishes garnished with white truffles from Alba, like cardoon flan with fonduta and duck ravioli.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Barolo Monfalletto is a classy wine bursting with sweet red fruit, flowers and mint. The 2008 shows gorgeous finesse from start to finish in a feminine style that is hugely appealing. A vibrant, floral finish adds lift and energy. This is a delicious 2008 from Cordero di Montezemolo. I would not be surprised if the wine develops very well in bottle. It is all class and elegance. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2023.
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James Suckling
This is very perfumed and pretty with roses and dark fruits and just a hint of toasted oak. Full body, with polished tannins and a lightly chewy tannic mouthfeel. It's long and delicious. More delicate palate compared to the nose.
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Wine Spectator
A rich, dense red, exhibiting cherry, currant and tobacco flavors, with hints of tar and menthol. The beefy tannins lend a compact feel and a dry, tactile sensation on the finish, but this shows balance overall. Best from 2015 through 2030.
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.