Winemaker Notes
From Giulia’s sandiest parcels in Serradenari, this is textbook La Morra: an exquisitely fragrant, rose petal–tinged nose with sweet, caressing tannins. Pinpoint focus with tightrope tension.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Scorched earth, burned rubber and toasted nut aromas mingle with whiffs of spice. Austere and firm, the linear palate recalls sour cherry, blood orange, allspice and hazelnut framed in close-grained tannins that leave a rather grippy finish. Give the tannins several years to unclench, then drink sooner rather than later to catch the delicate fruit sensations.
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Wine Spectator
Veers to the balsamic side, revealing juniper, rosemary, sage and earth flavors aligned with cherry and plum fruit. This finds a better equilibrium by the finish, where the fruit peeks through. Firmly tannic.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With fruit from La Morra, the Giulia Negri 2017 Barolo Serradenari shows dried fruit and scorched earth. The wine opens to dark plum and dark cherry, with campfire ember, baked brick, spice and bramble. It shows a medium finish, with some texture to the tannins that subside and becoming silky and smooth on the finish. Some 6,500 bottles were made.
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.