Winemaker Notes
Lecinquevigne is perfect for braised meat , game, mushrooms and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Rose petals, dried cedar, hazelnuts and tobacco. Very structured and powerful, but with enough generous fruit not to be hard nor intrusive. Full-bodied and long on the finish. Drink from 2021.
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Decanter
From five different vineyards within four villages (Barolo, Grinzane, Monforte and Novello), Le Cinque Vigne perfectly represents the tradition in Barolo of focussing on blends rather than single crus. Grinzane-Cavour dominates in this wine, as suggested by the more ready to drink, velvety style. But you shouldn't really consider it the entry level Barolo from Damilano because of its layered complexity, ranging from wild strawberry to cacao beans underlined by liquorice and tar notes, with full body and good concentration.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Barolo Lecinquevigne (with 60,000 bottles produced) shows ripe fruit with notes of raspberry and dark cherry. There is that moment of ripeness where the wine suddenly pulls itself together to offer more richness and velvety saturation at the back. This is a solid, easy-drinking expression with generous and round contours. This wine is ready to drink straight out of the gate, with a grilled steak.
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Wine Enthusiast
New leather, tilled earth, mature black-skinned fruit and menthol aromas are front and center. The juicy palate offers ripe Marasca cherry, star anise and ground brown pepper, while polished tannins lend support. Drink 2022–2027.
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Wine & Spirits
A blend of fruit from the communes of Barolo, Novello and Grinzane Cavour, this has notes of orange peel and tarragon that brighten its flavors of black cherry and plum. Ripe tannins frame the fruit as notes of licorice linger on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
This rich red delivers ripe plum, cherry, licorice and leather aromas and flavors. The tannins are present and refined. Balanced and long overall. Best from 2021 through 2037.
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.