Winemaker Notes
Rust and dark berries with chocolate, plums, hazelnuts, and currants. It's full-bodied with chewy but polished tannins and a very long finish.
Pair with rich dishes such as roast beef, braised meat, game, truffle and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Rich, red fruits have an unusually fresh and ripe presence in this lovely, well-balanced wine. Strawberries, raspberries and a spicy perfume of orange peel and star anise give this beauty a memorable aroma before tangy, nicely tannic sour cherries and cranberries take over the palate. Best from 2027.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Damilano 2019 Barolo Liste is released one year behind its peers. I found this bottle to be slightly reductive on first nose, with a metallic note that did eventually lift. You get pretty aromas of blood orange, sweet tangerine peel, licorice root and dark fruit. This vintage offers a better quality of aromas compared to 2020 and more complexity too. It is textured with muscle and lasting power. You get a citrusy note on the close. This is a 7,000-bottle release. I suggest you give this wine a little more time in bottle.
Rating: 94+ -
Wine Enthusiast
Dark cherries and wild flowers aromas greet your nose, while lush, forward fruit flavors dominate the palate. A solid structure backs up the juicy dark cherries, creating a drink me now vibe. Swirl, sip, and enjoy this deliciously fun wine.
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Wine Spectator
A fresh, sleek red, displaying cherry, strawberry, rose, eucalyptus, rosemary and tobacco flavors. Firm tannins quickly assert themselves, yet this remains balanced and long. Best from 2027 through 2042.
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.