Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The pure fruit aromas are mind-blowing with meat, fresh flowers, citrus fruit and sliced strawberries. Full body, ultra-fine tannins. Fabulous texture. Super subtle fruit and finesse. Wow. Drink in 2020 but so entrancing now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Barolo Campè Vürsù is built with strength and power on the inside, but gives an outward appearance that is more introvert and delicate. The bouquet is redolent of dried cherry, cassis, licorice, cola and grilled rosemary. The aromatic presentation is slightly sharper and more focused compared to past vintages of this wine. This Barolo should age nicely over the years, putting on more weight and fleshiness as it moves forward.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fragrant blue flower, menthol and a hint of exotic spice aromas come together on this firmly structured wine. The elegant palate still needs to fully open up but already reveals ripe Marasca cherry, crushed raspberry, white pepper and a hint of orange peel alongside firm, polished tannins. Drink after 2018–2023.
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Wine Spectator
Wonderful perfume envelops both the fruity and the savory aspects of this Nebbiolo, whose cherry, eucalyptus, wild herb and leather flavors are allied to severe tannins, lending an austerity now, but this red stays long and finds balance in the end. Best from 2020 through 2035.
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.