Winemaker Notes
Aromas of dried-fruit, spice, and cedar. The palate is full-bodied, focused and intense with a long and chewy finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A bright and primary red with sliced strawberries, citrus and stone aromas and flavors. Medium body. Fine tannins and a fresh finish. Tangy. Crushed stones. Juicy and nicely chewy. Transparent.
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Wine Spectator
This red offers an appealing balance between the cherry, currant, tar, eucalyptus and spice flavors and the solid, sinewy structure. Ends with a mix of ripe fruit and savory elements. Best from 2026 through 2043.
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Decanter
According to Domenico Clerico's winemaker, ‘in the 2019 vintage there is five percent of barrique due to the important tannic pattern of the vintage, otherwise the wine ages in big Slavonian oak.’ Full of leafy lightness and focused on cherry kernel and red currant fruit, the wine is precise and more elegant than powerful, with almost-crisp acidity and velvety tannins. It's a bit more fierce, if not rustic, on the finish.
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.