Winemaker Notes
The particular mineral component of the Bussia terroir gives the wine great structure and intense color, clear and enveloping tannins with a long and consistent aftertaste. The scent of red fruits such as raspberry and very ripe pomegranate blend well with spicy and balsamic notes.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The mid-weight Poderi Luigi Einaudi 2021 Barolo Bussia is a little shy on first nose and will need more time in bottle. This is a good sign for the wine's future aging potential. You get a glimpse of the aromatic complexity on hand with delicate berry fruit tones, cinnamon and licorice root. There is an elegant earthy intensity that I often associate with the Bussia cru.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Tasted after the Villero, the 2021 Barolo Bussia is a bright medium ruby color and has a touch more seductive and floral depth on the nose, with notes of raspberry liqueur, fresh rosemary, pressed flowers, mossy earth, and sweet leather. It fills the palate with a more rounded, weightless, and expansive feel, medium to full-bodied richness, ripe tannins that take on a little more plushness, and even acidity. It will gain depth and develop more notes of black truffle as it ages. Drink over the coming 15 or more years.
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Vinous
The 2021 Barolo Bussia is a gorgeous, expressive Barolo. All the breadth of Bussia comes through in the glass, with the more laid-back, mid-weight style that is now the house signature. Deeply spiced notes meld into a core of dark red fruit. Lifted and aromatic, with understated power, the 2021 is wonderfully complex and dynamic.
Rating: 96+ -
Wine Enthusiast
This feels like finding the perfect reading spot in an old library. Rich fruit and savory notes fill the air while mineral undertones keep drawing you deeper. The palate moves with scholarly confidence, each sip revealing another layer of complexity. A wine that knows exactly what it wants to say and takes its time saying it beautifully.
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Wine Spectator
A bright and well-delineated version, offering cherry, raspberry, floral, iron and wild herb aromas and flavors. Supple, beautifully balanced and long on the extended, linear finish. This red is open now; however, don't be surprised if this closes down for some time. Best from 2028 through 2046.
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Decanter
Elegant aromas of truffle, cherry and wild red fruit; vanilla oak, textured tannins and a tangy acidity on the palate.
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James Suckling
Graceful style due to the aromas and bony structure. Tea leaves, bergamot, cinnamon, fresh violets and dried cherries. Firm tannins with a ripe texture, refreshing acidity and medium to full body. Edgier finish. Try from 2027.
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.