Winemaker Notes
Ruby red with orange reflections. The aromas are very fine, ethereal, rich, liqueur cherry, and sweet spices. Elegant, full bodied, quite soft, fresh, balanced, sweet and well integrated tannins. Persistent on the finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Really beautiful and so clear and vivid. Plum, peach, strawberry and stone aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied with clear and poised fruit and fine and polished tannins and a refined and crafted finish. Already so beautiful to taste (drink) but there’s such balance and presence in the wine.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This MGA is located on the steep hill that rises from Barolo toward the village of La Morra, and vines sit between 390 to 480 meters in elevation. The M. Marengo 2020 Barolo Bricco delle Viole offers a delicate bouquet with proverbial violet-like aromas that filter through redcurrant and ripe cherry. There is a hint of something spicy in this vintage that recalls pink peppercorn or toasted herb. The tannins are strong, and there's good acidity with a velveteen close.
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Wine Spectator
A lively red, this is packed with cherry, raspberry, earth, iron and tobacco flavors. Despite its muscular profile, this is fresh and firm on the lingering, chalky finish. Best from 2028 through 2043. 400 cases made, 200 cases imported.
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.