Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Lazzarito comes from La Delizia Vineyard located just outside the village of Serralunga. The nebbiolo vines here grow in sedimentary marine soils mixed with calcareous marl, and the resulting wines are textbook examples of the powerful structure associated with Barolo from Serralunga. This 2001 harnesses that power in a seamless way, the tannin providing a firm foundation for the interplay of punchy cherry flavors and fragrant porcini earthiness. After a day of air, the wine grows more expressive and becomes a precise, clean arc of flavor that lasts. Completely satisfying, this will only get better with time. Buy three bottles: two for the cellar and one for grilled rack of lamb.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2001 Barolo Lazzarito is a big, earthy, powerful wine loaded with ripe plums, prunes, smoke and tar. Now that it has been in bottle for a few years, more advanced leather and spice notes have begun to develop. It still remains very youthful and capable of aging for a decade or so.
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.