Winemaker Notes
Ruby red with orange reflections. Very fine, ethereal, and rich on the nose, with notes of cherry and sweet spices. Elegant, full bodied, quite soft, fresh, balanced, sweet and well integrated tannins, persistent.
Great with grilled red meat or seasoned cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A Barolo with ripe berry, spice and some cedar and chocolate. Dried flowers and some asphalt, too. Full-bodied with chewy tannins and a juicy finish. Very classic structure. Shows freshness and solidity. Needs a few years to open. Try after 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The labels used in this flight of Barolo are very intuitive, as the shade of orange used in the printing grows darker to correspond with the tasting order of increased structure and concentration. A release of about 6,000 bottles, the M. Marengo 2017 Barolo Bricco delle Viole is presented in a medium-orange color, telling you it is a degree lighter than the Brunate but a degree heavier than the classic Barolo. The wine shows wild berry fruit, sour cherry, dried violet and lilac, with dried licorice root and aniseed. You'll notice the tannins, especially if this wine is tasted too young, so give it time.
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Wine Spectator
Delivers cherry and plum fruit flavors matched by menthol, hay, tar and tobacco. Although this red is solid, there's ample acidity to keep it defined and dynamic through the long, resonant 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.