Winemaker Notes
Complex structure offering notes of wild berries, black cherry and liquorice combined with light spice and vanilla acquired during ageing in wood. Typically austere on the palate, but warm and embracing, with extraordinary persistence and freshness in the finish. Wine for a really long ageing (20-30 years), the best drinking temperature is about 18°C, served in large glasses.
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
Enzo Rapalino from Treiso triumphed with his 2015 at the Decanter World Wine Awards, and the 2016, which is aged in barriques as well as large casks, is of comparable quality. It's very ripe on the nose but without jamminess, displaying vibrant cherry and raspberry aromas. The attack is fresh and lively, and the mid-palate is concentrated with ripe tannins and acidity. It's animated and zesty, with real flair, energy and length. Should age well, but accessible young.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Leather, tilled earth, grated clove and black cherry aromas take center stage along with a whiff of fragrant blue flower. The taut, velvety palate doles out raspberry extract, ripe cranberry, tobacco and licorice alongside firm acidity and close-grained tannins that leave a drying finish. Drink 2024–2032.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
From three areas of Giacosa, Bricco di Treiso, and Giacone, the 2016 was aged for 24 months in French and Slavonian oak casks. The 2016 Barbaresco is rich with dark red fruits, fresh leather, cedar, and forest floor. The palate is full of black cherry fruit up front, cinnamon and sweet tobacco, firm tannins that emerge, and a long finish. Drink 2024-2040.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The La Ganghija 2016 Barbaresco offers a classic read of the vintage with balanced aromas of wild berry, dried fruit, licorice, aniseed and camphor ash. If you are looking for an honest and straight-shooting Nebbiolo, this wine offers pretty authenticity and complexity. The tannins are integrated, dry and silky, but the wine should continue its easy aging trajectory over the next 10 years.
-
Wine Spectator
A beefy style, this red shows a beam of cherry, shaded by oak spice, earth and licorice notes. Turns leaner, with dense tannins lining the finish. This will need some time in bottle to relax. Best from 2022 through 2040.
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.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.