Winemaker Notes
On the nose, clear-cut overtones of withered roses, violets, tobacco, underbrush, spices, and a slight touch of vanilla. Dense, closely-woven tannins start out smooth, almost velvety, and then explode in the palate with fruit. It is excellent served with flavorful meat dishes and mature cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Interesting aromas of dried strawberry, lemon grass and stone follow through to a full body, chewy tannins and a savory finish. This is really tannic and powerful. Needs four or five years to soften. Better in 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Vigna la Rosa is located behind the gardens beyond the central cluster of buildings that make up the stunningly beautiful Fontanafredda estate. The 2013 Barolo Vigna la Rosa offers firm structure and elegance, that stylistically speaking pegs the wine closer to the more robust Serralunga d'Alba identity. This wine is aged in a combination of barrique and large oak casks. The bouquet is redolent of dark fruit and spice and there is a distant hint of roasted chestnut on the finish. It offers staying power and strength.
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Wine Enthusiast
Menthol, licorice and woodland berry aromas follow over to the luminous, elegant palate, along with white pepper and wild cherry. Bright acidity and firm, refined tannins lend both balance and finesse. Drink 2020–2033.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe cherry, leather, iron and tar flavors mark this dense, vibrant red. All the components are here, but this needs some time to come together. The fruit and tannins dovetail on the long finish. Best from 2022 through 2036.
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.