Winemaker Notes
Best with rich, structured dishes, red meat, game and seasoned cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Plenty of ripe fruit and walnut character. Hints of spices. Medium body, soft and velvety tannins and a delicious finish. Drink now.
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Wine Enthusiast
Ripe berry, underbrush, scorched earth, menthol, baking spice and a hint of leather meld together on this. The ripe, delicious palate doles out crushed raspberry, juicy Marasca cherry, white pepper and espresso alongside a tannic backbone. A tobacco note wraps around the finish. Drink 2019–2027.
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Wine & Spirits
Einaudi farms two parcels in the Terlo cru, selecting the one that faces more fully south for this Costa Grimaldi bottling. Its flavors of plum and prune feel richer than the Terlo bottling (recommended below), deepened by notes of fennel seed and anise, but it shows a similar earthy tone in its flavors of roasted mushroom and forest floor. Its warm finish and dark, ripe profile suggest a match with braised beef.
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Wine Spectator
A ripe style, displaying cherry, currant, earth and underbrush flavors, matched to dense tannins. Balanced, with a long finish. 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.