Winemaker Notes
Best with rich, structured dishes, red meat, game and seasoned cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of strawberry, lemon and hints of dried flowers follow through to a medium body, chewy tannins and a racy finish. Linear and very long. A pretty balanced young Barolo and Cannubi vineyard. Better in 2019.
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Wine Enthusiast
Leather, underbrush, earth, iris and woodland berry are some of the scents you'll discover on this structured wine. The concentrated palate delivers tart red cherry, licorice, cinnamon and sage before leading into a juicy finish. Firm tannins offer support. Drink 2018–2026.
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Wine & Spirits
“Delicious from start to finish,” commented one of our tasters. Einaudi’s 2012 Cannubi begins with flavors of juicy black plum balanced by a meaty savor. The flavors fill out over time, taking on richer notes of dark licorice and roasted fennel that add to the wine’s savory character. It feels chewy and dense, ready to take on a crown roast.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Poderi Luigi Einaudi 2012 Barolo Cannubi takes a brief departure from the delicate floral and ethereal aromas usually associated with this important vineyard site. Instead, the wine offers a greater degree of darkness, richness and intensity. What it gains in power, it ultimately relinquishes in complexity. There is more dark fruit on display and a riper style to behold.
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Wine Spectator
A lean, austere style, with tannins matched to the fruit. Light cherry and strawberry notes up front struggle to hold their own. Fresh finish. Best from 2017 through 2028.
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.