Winemaker Notes
Garnet red color. Very intense and complex nose with notes of fruit and flowers and hints of leather and fresh hay. In the mouth it is full-bodied, elegant, with pleasant tannins that are typical of Nebbiolo and of the wines made in the area of Serralunga d'Alba. Perfect balance between tradition and innovation.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of tar, asphalt, dark fruit and bark. Plenty of blackberry and some dark cherry. It’s full-bodied and very tight with a linear, racy finish. Chewy and focused. Vertical, taking you down through the palate.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Barolo Margheria is savory with licorice, fresh leather, and cedar. The palate is balanced with gushing fresh cherry, dried apricot, and forested earth, with rich tannic structure and warming spice.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Pira family farms several of the most important single-vineyard sites in Serralunga d'Alba, and this one has 50-year-old vines. The Luigi Pira 2017 Barolo Margheria offers a hint of the vintage ripeness with some wild strawberry and dried raspberry. In fact, those sweet fruit flavors emerge here in the Margheria more than they do in the other crus sites from this estate that are now on the market. That extra degree of softness gives this wine a more immediate and accessible personality.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek, with macerated cherry, plum and spice flavors buoyed by moderate acidity and dense yet refined tannins. Although taut, this lingers nicely on the mineral-tinged finish.
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.