Winemaker Notes
The 2016 Fontanabianca Barbaresco Bordini opens with an intense nose with hints of violets and spices. The palate is fine and elegant, soft and harmonious.
Ideal companions to this wine are brasato-piedmontese roast game or aged cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Barbaresco Bordini was the first vintage in which Matteo Pola took on a leading role at the estate. A deeper reflective red color, it offers aromas of preserved cranberries, espresso, mocha, wild herbs, mint, and orange zest. Medium-bodied, the wine is electric on the palate with vibrant acidity, beautifully defined tannins, and impressive length.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Fontanabianca 2016 Barbaresco Bordini is a very soft and accessible expression of Nebbiolo that shows some ripe fruit softness with bold cherry notes followed by spice, tobacco and tar. The wine delivers a very tightly knit texture, yet it is surprisingly forthcoming and generous at the same time. It's another great Barbaresco for grilled meats.
Rating: 93(+)
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James Suckling
Rose petals, fruit tea, citrus and cinnamon. Medium-bodied and very elegant and taut on the palate knitted by wavy grooves of wooly tannins.
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Wine Enthusiast
Underbrush, balsamic notes, new leather and rose aromas lead the nose. Tight and assertive, the linear, full-bodied palate offers dried cherry, licorice and espresso framed in firm acidity and youthfully austere, close-grained tannins that leave a tight, rather austere finish. Give this time to fully unwind and open up.
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.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.