Winemaker Notes
Its color is never too bright, presenting a lovely tone that remains stable over time, while floral aromas with hints of fresh fruit and sweet spices lead to a savory, well-structured palate where acids and tannins are harmoniously balanced, the latter standing out with a tendency toward sweetness; it is a highly ageable wine that, with proper maturation, reveals its pedigree through great elegance, marked minerality, and remarkable personality, making it an excellent pairing with roasts and game.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is structured and nicely formed on the palate with medium to full body and broad, velvety tannins. It offers vivid red fruit, dried citrus peel, dried flowers and hints of licorice and walnuts on the nose, following through to a textured, caressing palate that concludes with a firm and lingering finish. Focused and well balanced. Really well made. Try from 2028.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pouring a dark red, the 2020 Barolo Gabutti is a bit reserved on opening and needs coaxing to reveal notes of cranberry cocktail, cinnamon baking spice, anise, and pressed flowers. Open and inviting, it’s approachable and ripe up front, with ripe tannins, and it has good balance without being heavy. It offers a clean ripe finish and is going to show at its best over the next 5-7 years.
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.