Winemaker Notes
The 2015 Fratelli Alessandria Barolo Monvigliero opens with aromas of dark berries, tobacco, plums, and roses. The palate is good and structured, complex and layered, yet also supple and silky.
This wine pairs excellently alongside grilled steak and wild mushrooms.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Monvigliero in the Verduno township is quickly becoming one of the most celebrated and talked about crus in Barolo. The Fratelli Alessandria estate was among the first to understand its potential, and indeed, this wine was first released in 1978. Fast forward to today and you will find that the 2015 Barolo Monvigliero is an absolutely classic interpretation that stays faithful to past incarnations. The wine offers pretty berry aromas intermingled with spice, licorice and crushed stone. A floral aroma of red rose also appears. The tannins are solid and will require extra years of bottle aging.
Rating: 96(+)
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Wine Enthusiast
From one of the most celebrated vineyards in the denomination, this opens with alluring aromas of rose, menthol, perfumed berry, pine forest and new leather. Structured and loaded with finesse, the compelling palate delivers juicy Marasca cherry, crushed raspberry, licorice and cinnamon along with crushed mint. Tightly knit, fine-grained tannins and fresh acidity provide ageworthy support and tension.
Cellar Selection
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James Suckling
Attractive dried-rose and potpourri aromas with sweet, dried strawberry notes. This is really charming. The palate has a very bright red-fruit spark on entry that builds into a chalky bend of tannin that holds the finish long and fresh. Elegant and approachable now, this is a great expression of Verduno that will age very well.
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.