Winemaker Notes
'Gramolere' is located in Monforte d’Alba, facing south/southwest, at some 1,050 to 1,750 feet above sea level. Vines are on average 30 years old. Consistent with the style of Nebbiolo from Monforte, the wine shows more structure; tannins are present yet refined; with darker berry fruit and more pronounced peppery spice.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
The Alessandria family’s wine from Monforte is red-fruited and lively, its crunchy cherry and berry flavors gaining verve and brightness as the wine sits in the glass. The tannins are like cool iron, gripping the red fruit tones as they pick up notes of soft herbs and white licorice on the long finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With fruit from Monforte d'Alba, the 2018 Barolo Gramolere is linear and tight with etched aromas of crisp forest berry, iron ore, blood orange, blue violet and crushed stone. The wine is bright and expressive with time in the glass, but it takes a while to open fully. The tannins are firm but integrated. It should be interesting to retaste this Barolo after the 10-year mark.
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Vinous
The 2018 Barolo Gramolere is the most engaging of the 2018 Barolos here. It shows a level of translucence that is missing from the other wines, most likely because of recent racking. Dark spice, menthol, plum and gravel lend quite a bit of nuance to this ample, expansive Barolo. The 2018 is beautifully done and also quite promising.
Range: 92-94
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.