Winemaker Notes
Very intense ruby red with garnet reflections. Fresh scents of small red fruits, raspberry, redcurrant and wild roses that evolve into licorice and spice notes. Warm, elegant, persistent with a long finish, soft tannins
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Barolo is a beautiful new release from Elio Altare. Silvia Altare (Elio's daughter) tells me, "The 2019 vintage was easy to make, resulting in wines that are rich, fat and powerful. The 2018 vintage was lean and 2017 was hot, but 2019 is classic." This wine sees fruit sourced from across three villages of Barolo (some estate-owned and some leased), and winemaking was straightforward, with short maceration times and few rackings, Silvia says. The results are vinous and fruit-forward with plump cherry and blackberry over a textured, full-bodied approach. Rating: 94+
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James Suckling
Lovely perfume to this with flowers, cherries, and orange peel. Medium-bodied with firm and fine tannins. Pretty length. Bright at the end.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant, focused red, evoking cherry, strawberry, rose hip and earth flavors. Balanced in a linear profile, finishing crisply while echoing red fruit and floral notes. Best from 2025 through 2042. 833 cases made, 250 cases imported.
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.