Winemaker Notes
The 2016 Luigi Einaudi Barolo Cannubi is a classy wine that expresses the elegance typical of the terroir of "Cannubi" in Barolo, rich in structure, intense, mysterious and powerful.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Wow. This is real Cannubi, offering sliced ripe strawberries and dried flowers, such as roses, as well as crushed raspberries. It’s full-bodied, yet very tight and reserved. Stealth is a word that comes to mind. Love it. Best in a long time.
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Wine Enthusiast
Rose, exotic spice and dark-skinned berry aromas mingle with whiffs of menthol and new leather on this radiant Barolo. Firmly structured and loaded with finesse, the savory palate delivers ripe morello cherry, orange zest, licorice and tobacco before a crushed mint finish. Taut fine-grained tannins and fresh acidity keep it well balanced.
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Wine Spectator
A fresh, crystalline red, exhibiting flavors of cherry, strawberry, iron and tobacco affixed to a firm, unyielding backbone of dense yet refined tannins, finishing long and satisfying. Excellent balance. Best from 2023 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.