Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Tre tine' is the name used by Beppe Rinaldi since 2011 to summarise Cannubi-San Lorenzo-Ravera, from which the grapes are sourced for this wine. Not one of the easiest Barolo tasted, it is more than restrained: reluctant and tight-lipped. It seems to be simple but indeed it's not. Leafy lightness on the nose is saturated with red currant and blood orange. The sternness dominates the palate in perfect Rinaldi style, with firm, muscular, grainy yet ripe tannins. Tension and some roundness make it classic; austere to drink now but with great potential for lovers of traditional Barolo.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Barolo Tre Tine is elegant and long, with pure cherry fruit, star anise, and pine, and is refined with fine tannins and snappy acidity within a medium frame. Notes of wild berries, cedar, and spice open to reveal more complex layers within this very attractive and classically styled wine. Drink 2024-2044.
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Wine Spectator
Light in weight, this supple red expresses strawberry, cherry, rose, mineral and eucalyptus aromas and flavors. Linear in profile and firmly structured, with fine balance and a lingering aftertaste of hibiscus and juniper. Best from 2025 through 2042.
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Vinous
The 2018 Barolo Tre Tine is a super-classic wine. It reminds me so much of a wine Beppe Rinaldi might have made. Readers will find an austere, taut Barolo built on energy and tension more than primary fruit. It's the sort of Barolo that blossoms only with time in bottle. Spice, cedar, sweet pipe tobacco, dried cherry, macerated red cherry and anise start to open with a bit of coaxing. This is an intriguing wine, to say the least.
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.