Winemaker Notes
A wine with delicious berry, chocolate and cocoa character and hints of orange peel. Medium to full body, fine tannins and a pretty finish.
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
Chiara Boschis’ take on Monforte’s Wagnerian terroir translates it into a minerally, fruit-driven symphony with refined tannins and graceful flavour. This is a brilliant compromise between acidity and sweetness.
-
James Suckling
Plenty of dried berries and herbs. Some meat, woody spices and a wealth of fresh red and pink roses, making this very fragrant. The palate has assertive acid cut and impressive depth. The elegant yet firm tannins hold the red-plum finish long. A great result with real tension. Try from 2023.
-
Wine Spectator
A mix of cherry, eucalyptus, iron and tobacco aromas and flavors are gripped by dense, dusty tannins. On the darker side, with a kernel of sweet fruit on the finish. Fine intensity. Best from 2023 through 2038.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Barolo Mosconi is the most robust and structured of the three Barolos. Chiara Bochis believes in making her single-vineyard wines even in a difficult vintage such as this. She rejects the idea of blending all her fruit together to make a single wine. Indeed, her cru wines are very distinct. Each shows its individual characteristics with greater precision, I would argue, in this slender and more ethereal vintage. The 2014 vintage is a natural spring board for highlighting vineyard personalities. This is a cool vintage, but Mosconi surprises the senses for the plump ripeness of its dark fruit favors.
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.