Winemaker Notes
Ideal with big red meat dishes and medium or mature cheeses, it can also make for pleasant after-dinner company.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
On the savory side, this red opens with freshly mowed grass, hay and eucalyptus aromas before revealing cherry, strawberry, rose and mineral flavors. Fleshy, with a matrix of dense tannins flexing their muscles on the finish. Shows excellent potential. Best from 2023 through 2042.
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James Suckling
A creamy and juicy red with cedar and meat to the plum and berry undertones. It’s medium-to full-bodied, fruity and flavorful. Hints of fudge and hazelnuts. Very drinkable now, but better after 2022.
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Wine Enthusiast
Rose, red-berry, wild herb and baking-spice aromas take center stage on this fragrant, elegant red. Loaded with finesse, the full-bodied palate delivers strawberry compote, star anise and cinnamon alongside a mineral note evoking rusty nail. Taut polished tannins and bright acidity provide the age-worthy framework. Drink 2024–2046.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Fontanafredda 2016 Barolo Fontanafredda Vigna la Rosa also shows that muddled quality that I found in some of the other wines from this estate. I'm not sure if it is related to an over-cropping issue, but the wine lacks the clarity and focus that you should expect of a vintage of this caliber and importance. You get standard aromas with red and purple fruit, spice and tar. There's more focus in the Vigna la Rosa in terms of mouthfeel, and that helps to stitch the wine together.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine’s lush red cherry and raspberry flavors are accented by notes of licorice and orange peel. It has good energy, with firm, ferrous tannins that keep the fruit tones in balance through a warm, spicy 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.