Domenico Clerico Barolo 2015
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Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James -
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Extracted and dense, this Barolo offers typical aromas of tobacco, rose hips, violets, and balsamic sensations while packing dense fruit.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Fruit for this wine comes from various vineyard parcels all located in Monforte d'Alba, and in fact, the plan is to identify this wine as being from this township starting with the 2017 vintage. Starting then, the front label will read Barolo di Monforte d'Alba, because the winemaking management at Domenico Clerico feels it is important to identify this wine with a geographic location. But for now, we have the 2015 Barolo. This is an extremely elegant and graceful expression with classic Monforte d'Alba characteristics: The wine shows a tight and powerful inner core and the qualities (integrated acidity and tannins) for long cellar aging. You have everything in this one package.
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James Suckling
This young Barolo is really savory with dried-fruit, cedar and hot-stone character. Full-bodied, focused and intense. Very long and chewy finish. Drink in 2022.
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Wine Spectator
New oak adds a touch of vanilla and another layer of tannins to this intense red, making it a bit more severe in its youth. Plum, cherry, tar, tobacco and floral top notes mingle with tree bark and iron accents as this evolves through the dense, dusty finish. Best from 2024 through 2039.
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Farming Practices: No systemic plant protection products (products which act by systemic transport – through the sap of the plant) are used. Sulfur- and copper-based products are the most prevalent. No herbicides are used (the soil is tilled). When needed, only organic fertilizer (manure) is used. There is little use of fertilizers in order to keep the grape production per vine low. Very careful use of SO2 in the wines.
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.