Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This gorgeous Barolo offers a fragrance of dried rose petal and cherry along with balsamic notes, leather and freshly turned soil. The palate delivers rich red cherry, white pepper, clove and carob nuances. It’s structured, elegant and beautifully balanced by fresh acidity and firm but elegant tannins. It will continue to develop more complexity over the next decade.
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James Suckling
Wonderful aromas of orange peel, flowers and dark fruits follow through to a full body, with silky tannins and a chewy finish. Plenty of fruit here for the vintage.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Barolo sees fruit sourced from various townships and presents a masculine note of musky spice and leather in front of dried cherry and cassis. A zesty touch of acidity brings levity and energy to the mouth and helps to bring an extra kick of brightness to the finish. The wine boasts age-worthy qualities but probably shouldn’t be put away for too long. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2025.
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Wine Spectator
Displays sappy cherry and licorice notes, with a hint of menthol and tobacco, showing a well-toned rather than muscular structure. Sweet fruit and spice accents grace the finish.
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.