Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very exciting and subtle red with tar, licorice and dark berry character. Full-bodied, yet subtle and balanced. Lovely density and freshness. Better than 2010. Drink or hold for many years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Barolo Ginestra Casa Matè sees a fresher quality of fruit compared to the Barolo Gavarini Chiniera. Vines are picked at slightly lower altitudes and harvest starts a few days earlier in this vineyard. The wine reveals an elegant and streamlined bouquet with lively tones of wild berry, spice, white truffle and balsam herb. The complexity here is very enticing indeed. I also appreciated the quality of tannins. They are silky and structured without feeling harsh or astringent.
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Wine Enthusiast
Full-bodied and intense, this delicious wine opens with aromas of woodland berry, star anise, chopped herbs, underbrush and a whiff of light oak. The firm palate doles out ripe black cherry, licorice, sage and chopped mint alongside big, velvety tannins and fresh acidity.
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Wine Spectator
This is packed with sweet cherry, plum, tobacco, tea and spice flavors. The ample tannins come into play as this unfolds, remaining balanced and refined. Best from 2018 through 2030.
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.