Winemaker Notes
The 2017 La Spinetta Barolo Garretti is a ruby red in appearance. The nose displays hints of ripe plum with subtle accents of roses. Full-bodied and intense with a pleasant continuation on the palate, upholding a fruity texture.
Pair this wine alongside stewed pheasant, Poached eggs with Raschera fondue and Alba white truffles.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lots of dried roses with stems to the strawberry and cherry character. It’s full-bodied and chewy with lots of fruit and wood tannins that pucker your mouth now. But it should come around nicely with bottle age. Try after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With a lion on its front label to represent Barolo, the "King of Wines," the La Spinetta 2017 Barolo Garretti is a wine of depth, dark fruit and concentration. This vintage delivers power and lots of momentum that you feel in the weight of the fruit, the aromatic intensity and the structure. The wine's alcohol measures 14.5%, and that, too, contributes to the overall brawn and muscle. This 10,000-bottle production appears very youthful and still nervous, so put it aside in your cellar for best results.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Garretti is located in the northeastern-most commune of Barolo, of Grinzane Cavour. The 2017 Barolo Garretti is savory with licorice, tobacco, plum pit, and cedar. The palate is round, with notes of ripe black cherry, forest floor, and cinnamon spice, and full structure that is gripping, though balanced. Drink 2024-2036.
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.