Winemaker Notes
The 2018 Barolo Garretti is ruby red with hints of ripe black cherries, licorice and violet on the nose. It is structured and full, with balsamic and floral notes. The finish is wide and gentle, with velvety and precise tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a solid 2018 with medium to full body, chewy tannins and a fruity, smoky, and nutty finish. Needs time to soften. Best after 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The La Spinetta 2018 Barolo Garretti is underlined by a dark and savory quality that appears throughout this experience. Blackberry and dried cherry give the wine solid grounding and a long-lasting taste profile. Those dark fruit tones are amply surrounded by spice, toasted hazelnut and black truffle. Best After 2024
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Wine Spectator
Elegant and refined, offering cherry, raspberry, eucalyptus and grassy flavors. Firms up nicely on the lingering finish, yet should be ready to enjoy in 3 to 5 years. Best from 2025 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.
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.