Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Giuseppe Rinaldi's recent vintages have the potential to become cult wines. The 2015 is extremely pale and lively, focused on fresh citrusy notes of orange peel and cedar wood with a rhubarb candy core accompanied by star anise, vermouth, tar and liquorice. It's full and austere on the palate yet with refined velvety tannins: a Barolo of great personality and elegance for demanding drinkers.
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Wine Spectator
A compelling red that offers purity and grace, with rose, cherry and raspberry aromas augmented by iron, tobacco and earth flavors, all marshaled by vivid acidity and underscored by dense yet refined tannins. Long and shows wonderful harmony, even at this youthful stage. Best from 2023 through 2045.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Barolo Brunate benefits from a thicker soil profile in this vineyard that consequently bumps the wine's aromatic intensity and staying power up a notch or two. This wine is almost crunchy in texture, with a subtle snap or crackle as it hits the palate. It shows enormous beauty and richness with a dark fruit profile followed by elements of spice, tar, tobacco and moist potting soil. There are floral notes as well with rose and lavender. This wine will reward those with the patience to wait.
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Wine Enthusiast
Eucalyptus, underbrush and red berry aromas shape the nose on this structured, elegant red. The taut palate is full of tension and energy, delivering crushed raspberry, juicy Marasca cherry, licorice and a hint of truffle alongside refined, enveloping tannins. Fresh acidity keeps it well balanced. Drink 2023–2030.
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Vinous
The 2015 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Brunate is a fine choice for drinking now, as it is starting to show some signs of development, especially in its aromatics. Hints of cedar, sweet pipe tobacco, macerated cherry and worn-in leather are all laced with the gentle patina of age. I have always felt the 2015 was a rather light Brunate from Rinaldi. This tasting reinforces that impression. I would not wait forever for this.
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.