Winemaker Notes
Luigi Einaudi Barolo Bussia is brilliant garnet with exuberant fruit and spice on the nose. The palate is luscious, full-bodied and full-flavored with a velvety texture, and spicy finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Barolo Bussia has an inviting bouquet of dried apricot, crushed roses, leather, and ripe raspberry. Fresh with cranberry, dried orange peel, and bitter herbs, the palate has driving acidity to match its angular tannins and warming backbone.
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James Suckling
A creamy and juicy young red with lots of cherry, dried strawberry, black-tea and bark character. Full and polished with chewy tannins. Needs time. Try after 2025.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine is still tensely coiled, needing several hours of air to unleash its juicy red- and-black-cherry flavors. The tannins are taut yet refined, and the wine takes on some pleasant earthy notes as it moves toward a long and lively finish. Plenty of aging potential here.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Of these new releases from Poderi Luigi Einaudi, the 2017 Barolo Bussia is the wine that shows the most overt markings of the hot and dry growing season. This is something we saw this vintage across a good many of the Nebbiolo-based wines from Bussia, despite this being one of the larger and therefore less accurately summed up MGA crus in the wider Barolo appellation. The vines are south-facing to absorb long sun hours and planted in calcareous marl soils. The Barolo Bussia reveals some subtle over-ripeness with sweet aromas of wild strawberry, dried raspberry and cherry confit. That softness is wrapped up firmly by Nebbiolo's lasting structure and elegant tannins. This 7,776-bottle release is poised for a slightly more immediate drinking window.
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Wine Enthusiast
Camphor, blue flower and French oak form the nose along with a whiff of graphite. The firmly structured palate is on the austere side, offering pomegranate, raspberry, blood orange and licorice alongside tightly wound, close-grained tannins that leave an assertive, astringent close.
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Wine Spectator
The supple, fleshy texture sets the stage for cherry, currant and loam flavors in this version. The dense, lightly astringent tannins ply the finish, offsetting the initial impact of the fruit, while hay and eucalyptus accents add detail. Best from 2025 through 2042.
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Decanter
Poderi Einaudi manages little more than two hectares in Cannubi, at 220 metres above sea level with a south-southeast aspect over grey-white Sant'agata marl. '2017 will be remembered for the warm climate trend and in particular for the low rainfall,' said a contact at the estate. Leafy at first, rosebud and sweet, ripe dark fruit follow. On the palate it emerges rather angular and fresh, well balanced by the pulpy fruit. Although it's at the expense of concentration, this is a good interpretation of the warm vintage while preserving freshness.
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.