Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Loads of tar and blackberries on the nose. Full-bodied, with soft, round tannins and a pretty fruity finish. This is balanced.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Over the last few years, CEO Giovanni Minetti and eonologist Danilo Drocco have embarked on a plan to completely overhaul the estate's image, placing more emphasis on quality and a more contemporary style of winemaking, especially with regards to the higher-end wines. Gone are the old labels and packaging, replaced with sleek, stylish labels and extra-heavy bottles. The Barolos today are made in a softer, more accessible style that emphasizes low yields and very ripe, concentrated fruit. The wines are aged in Allier barriques for the first year and in medium sized 20 to 30 hectoliter Allier oak barrels for the second year...The 2001 Barolo La Rosa, a saturated ruby, opens with a nose that suggests very ripe fruit, new oak, licorice and tar. It is massive and rich on the palate with loads of dark, concentrated fruit, toasted oak and menthol notes. The most masculine and dense of these Barolos...
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.