Winemaker Notes
A brilliant scarlet color with hints of ruby and a touch of garnet. Just translucent. Spicy ripe plums and delicate cherries, contributes to the complexity of the aromas. Firm and structured on the palate. Loaded with ripe plums and cherries with a distinctive character. Starts out medium bodied, but then expands magically in the mouth into an explosion of tannins, tobacco and wild dark fruit flavors.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Another fragrant, drop-dead gorgeous wine from this fantastic estate, this opens with enticing scents of wild rose, red berry, baking spice and a whiff of smoke. Showing the hallmark finesse of Verduno, the smooth, delicious palate features juicy Marasca cherry, raspberry compote, licorice and flinty mineral framed in taut, refined tannins. Bright acidity keeps it youthfully tense and impeccably balanced. Drink 2024–2036.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Comm. G.B. Burlotto 2016 Barolo moves away from the anise and asphalt that you get in most standard Boroli and moves toward more floral, mineral and ethereal tones. This is a beautiful wine with relatively short tannins, plus chalky nuances and a more approachable style. The wine offers cherry, licorice root, campfire ash and white pepper. Rating: 94+
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Wine Spectator
Graphite, rose, raspberry and cherry aromas are effusive, picking up earth, underbrush and tobacco notes by the finish. Rich, fruity and balanced, this red cruises to a long, fruit and mineral aftertaste. Best from 2022 through 2043.
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.