Winemaker Notes
Pair with structured, rich dishes, red meat, game, and seasoned cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is very pretty with a solid core of fruit plus berry and light cedar undertones. Some mushroom too. Full to medium body, soft tannins and a flavorful finish. Drink now or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Barolo Terlo is a shapely and nicely balanced Nebbiolo that shows both power and elegance. The wine delivers bright fruit with bold cherry and cassis that are immediately recognizable. As the bouquet opens, the wine offers pretty layers of ash, smoke, licorice, cola and rose hip. Overall, the wine delivers a great sense of balance and this is not an easy feat in the low-key 2012 vintage.
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Wine & Spirits
Terlo opens with an earthy austerity, picking up notes of anise and bay leaf to complement its dried porcini flavors. Einaudi used to age this wine entirely in barriques, but starting with the 2010 vintage, half of the wine now goes into large casks, allowing its dark cherry flavors more unfettered expression. Those fruit flavors linger, staying fresh and lively to the finish.
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Wine Spectator
This taut red shows cherry and menthol flavors, all balanced by the firm, integrated structure. Shows fine length and follows through with licorice and spice accents. Best from 2018 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.