Winemaker Notes
Aromas of ripe berry, fragrant blue flower and a whiff of Alpine herb lead the nose. The generous palate offers juicy black cherry, crushed raspberry, cinnamon and licorice alongside firm, fine-grained tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is a precious, 700-bottle release that is only made in select vintages. The Ellena Giuseppe 2012 Barolo Riserva Ascheri is very well priced considering the rarity of the wine. This Riserva opens to a red-brick color with lively garnet highlights. Fruit comes from 65-year-old vines planted in the Ascheri cru with calcareous clay soils. These conditions help to render darker and more concentrated fruit flavors. The bouquet shows tertiary definition with dried fruit, rusty nail and old spice. I wouldn't wait too much longer to drink this wine, so catch it now.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of ripe dark-skinned berry, cedar and a whiff of alpine herb lead the nose. The solid palate is already rather accessible, featuring black cherry jam, tobacco and licorice alongside chewy tannins. Drink 2021–2029.
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.