Winemaker Notes
When finish fermentation of the sugars and malolactic fermentation, we start to move the wine in small wood of French oak 50% new and 50% old where remains for 2 years. After this time we assemble the wine in steel where remains for 6 months, at the end of which he is bottled and allow us to keep for two years before to sell.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Very ripe strawberry aromas, with hints of violet and black licorice. Full-bodied, with big, velvety tannins and beautiful ripe fruit. Long and beautiful. There's so much there. Just hiding right now. Needs time. Best after 2012. 250 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2004 Barolo Vigna Arborina presents a very typical profile of candied cherries, menthol, spices and sweet toasted oak. Initially quite clenched, the wine opens beautifully with air, revealing terrific depth and the firmer tannins that are characteristic of this site. This perfumed, fresh Barolo still needs at least another few years in bottle to come together. It is made from a southwest facing plot in the vineyard. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2024.
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.