Winemaker Notes
Intense persistent bouquet of black cherry with hints of rose, leather, coffee beans and tar. Full-bodied, yet well-balanced and smooth.
Excellent with red meats (roasted, skewered or grilled) or wild game.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is quite something with a ton of red-plum candy, mince pies, Christmas cake and cherry liqueur springing from the glass. Big and bold on the full-bodied palate, which frames lots of succulent fruit and muscular, modern-styled tannins. Despite being concentrated, it remains quite sophisticated on the finish. Drink from 2024.
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Wine Spectator
Rose, cherry and white pepper aromas and flavors ply the elegant frame in this light-bodied red. Balanced and should be approachable in the short term. Best from 2021 through 2033.
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Wine Enthusiast
This opens with aromas of red berry, tobacco and mint while the savory palate offers raspberry jam, clove and licorice. Austere, fine-grained tannins provide support.
Giacosa Fratelli is a fifth-generation, family-owned winery in Piedmont, Italy, where tradition, place, and sustainability come together in every bottle.
The story begins in 1895, when Giuseppe Giacosa—a local sharecropper—won the Italian lottery and used the prize to buy a small winery in Neive. More than a century later, the Giacosa family still farms these same hills, now led by brothers Maurizio and Paolo alongside the next generation, twins Alessandro and Mauro.
Today, Giacosa Fratelli owns organic vineyards across some of Piedmont's most celebrated appellations, including Monforte d'Alba and Castiglione Falletto in Barolo, and Neive in Barbaresco. Their vines grow in highly prized sites such as the Scarrone cru (Castiglione Falletto) — an elevated, south-facing hillside known for producing wines of depth, elegance, and remarkable aging potential. Additional vineyards, like Bussia (Monforte d'Alba) and Gianmate (Neive) allow the family to craft a diverse lineup that truly reflects Piedmont's terroir.
What truly sets Giacosa Fratelli apart is their deep commitment to sustainability. The winery is powered by solar energy, captures its own CO2 emissions, and uses rainwater recycling for irrigation. Organic viticulture and lightweight bottles further reduce their environmental footprint.
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.