Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Barolo Mosconi is a bit deeper in color, with its jeweled appearance leading to floral, fresh, and spicy notes of ripe cherry, pink peppercorn, and fresh rosemary. It is medium to full-bodied, with great purity, and has ripe, sweet tannins that fill the palate alongside balanced fruit, hints of forest floor, and a bit of cedar. It is long on the palate and needs more time. Drink 2025-2045.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With fruit from Monforte d'Alba, the E. Pira e Figli - Chiara Boschis 2019 Barolo Mosconi is the most powerful of the three wines presented here. We tasted it last. Bottled on the full August moon, the wine is impeccably balanced and bright with dark fruit, black cherry, spice and pencil shaving. The tannic structure of the wine is impressive, and you can count on Mosconi for long aging potential.
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James Suckling
Lots of spices and earth with dark berries on the nose. Full-bodied with fine and silky tannins and a long and flavorful finish with blackberries and cinnamon. Racy and silky texture at the finish. From organically grown grapes.
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Wine Spectator
A fresh, firmly structured red, boasting cherry and raspberry fruit at the core, framed by mint, tar and iron flavors. Broad-shouldered, with a solid matrix of tannins that dominate the finish today. Packs generous ripe fruit, so be patient. Best from 2027 through 2047.
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.