Winemaker Notes
Best with rich, structured dishes, red meat, game and seasoned cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A dense and velvety red with lots of chocolate, berry and spice character. Hints of mushroom too. Full body. Chewy and rich finish. Needs four to five years to soften. Great richness. Wonderful Cannubi.
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Wine & Spirits
Floral aromas lead into a big and spicy Barolo, with flavors of red and black berries layered with clove, black tea, tobacco and mushroom. The fine tannins and vibrant fruit flavors make this a pleasure to drink now, although it promises more complexity if left to cellar a few more years.
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Wine Spectator
Violet and black currant aromas and flavors are at the center of this red, tinged by licorice, spice and mineral notes. Lean, intense and persistent on the long, cherry- and spice-accented finish. Fine grip and freshness gives this longevity.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Barolo Cannubi performs very nicely, but generally speaking I am not as impressed by wines made from this historic vineyard in the hot 2011 vintage. The wine delivers soft complexity and a subdued personality without the verve and bursting energy you get in cooler years. It expresses itself with simple, less nuanced vocabulary.
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Wine Enthusiast
This offers aromas of toast, espresso, scorched earth, red berry, clove and a whiff of leather. The lean, tense palate offers dried cherry, grilled herb, anise, coffee and tobacco but not much fruit richness. Tightly wound, bracing tannins and nervous acidity provide the framework.
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.