Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This polished wine opens with aromas that recall porcini mushroom, underbrush, woodland berries and whiffs of balsam. The dense palate delivers crushed black cherry, red raspberry, menthol, sage, black pepper and licorice alongside bracing tannins and lively acidity. Drink after 2020.
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Wine Spectator
This elegant red offers enticing aromas of rose, strawberry and cherry, with a hints of tobacco and spice. Firm and well-balanced, showing sweet fruit intertwined with tannins on the finish. Best from 2017 through 2033.
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James Suckling
Incredibly floral with rose petal and lilac aromas, and hints of dried fruits. Full body with firm tannins and a citrus, berry and mineral character. Balanced and structured. Better in 2017.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Barolo Brunate starts off with savory notes of cured meat and smoked bacon that unfold to reveal dark fruit and bitter chocolate as the wine evolves. Wines from the Brunate cru always deliver an extra sense of boldness and ripeness and Marcarini’s expression is no exception. Chopped mint, cinnamon and black olive appear at different stages of the experience. The tannins show some astringency so give this wine an extra year or two of cellar aging.
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.