Winemaker Notes
Aromas of red cherry fruit, macerated strawberry, notes of licorice, violet and cocoa. Full-bodied on the palate with ripe tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Earthy aromas of rose, truffle, underbrush and woodland berry shape the enticing nose. Full bodied and youthfully tense, the savory palate delivers Marasca cherry, raspberry compote, licorice and crushed mint alongside tightly knit, assertive tannins. Fresh acidity keeps balanced. It’s still youthfully austere so it give it time to fully develop. Drink 2024–2036.
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Decanter
2016 was the first vintage for this Serralunga native, who established his commercial career in Turin. He's certainly got off to a good start with this single-vineyard Prapo. The nose has a delicate smokiness enveloping charming red fruits. It's fleshy and very concentrated, with firm tannins that are not too extracted. Plenty of spice and acidity keep it lively, and it has impressive length. Drinking Window 2020 - 2036
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Luigi Vico 2016 Barolo Prapò is a well-balanced expression from Serralunga d'Alba. This vineyard site is known for its powerful and direct fruit, and the Prapò lives up to its reputation. Dried cherry, cola, iron ore and candied orange are laced within the texture of the bouquet. The tannins are loosely knit in this expression, even a tad gritty in texture, but they ultimately taper out, despite a few rough edges. This wine needs a few more years of cellar aging to come together.
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.