Winemaker Notes
The taste is dry, austere, flavorful and harmonious, with good concentrations of phenolic compounds due to a significant amount of microelements such as potassium and magnesium.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Francesco Rinaldi & Figli 2020 Barolo Brunate is a wine of good sharpness and intensity. It has a broad range of aromas with dark fruit, licorice and dried mint. That herbal character is something I often recognize in Barolo's Brunate vineyard, which is planted on limestone clay soils. This hot-vintage wine closes with a powerful 15% alcoholic content. I would assign a medium-term drinking window for this accessible Barolo.
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Vinous
The 2020 Barolo Brunate is quite the powerhouse. Black cherry, sage, menthol, licorice, plum and mocha build effortlessly with air. A wine of imposing presence and structure, the Brunate has a ton to offer. I admire its dynamic energy and character. It’s the sort of wine that is constantly changing in the glass as it reveals myriad shades of complexity over time.
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James Suckling
Very attractive nose of dried wild strawberries, dried violets, grapefruit peel, cardamom and cedar. Solid and energetic on the palate, with a medium to full body and a firm backbone of tannins. Structured and well balanced.
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.