Winemaker Notes
A ripe wine with generous flavors of blueberries, spices, violets and toasted oak. This well-structured Barolo has elegant tannins with considerable depth and an overall harmonic finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Lovely sweet berry and ripe raspberry aromas have a floral undertone. Full-bodied, with gorgeous fruit, supervelvety tannins and a long, long finish. Best after 2012
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Wine Enthusiast
This expression of Nebbiolo offers elegant layers of berry, smoke, spice and cola that build in intensity and persistency over the palate. This is a cellarworthy wine that will drink best five to 10 years from now. When it’s ready, pair it with braised lamb with aromatic herbs.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Grimaldi's 2005 Barolo Sotto Castello di Novello sparkles on the palate with gorgeous ripe dark fruit. This is an especially striking, vibrant Barolo, especially in the way the fruit carries through all the way to the long, refined finish. To be sure, the style is still on the modern side, but there is quite a bit more Nebbiolo character than in the past, and on the whole the wine displays exceptional balance in a style that is a touch more taut and focused then the Le Coste. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2020
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.