Winemaker Notes
The 2016 Marcarini Barolo La Serra wine has a garnet-color and ruby-red reflections with a slight orange note. The nose is ethereal, fresh, elegant and very persistent, with hints of violet, rose, licorice and sweet spices. In the mouth the flavor is long and intense. To be served in crystal glasses with very large bowls.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A Barolo with such intense, fine-grained tannins, yet it’s so deep and poised with polish and energy. Full-bodied, yet it remains agile and layered. Strawberries, bark, hazelnuts and hints of rose petals. Give this four or five years in the bottle, at least. But a classic wine.
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Wine Enthusiast
All about finesse, this ethereally elegant red opens with scents of rose, crushed mint, red berry and hints of new leather. The polished, precise palate features strawberry compote, spiced cranberry, star anise and a dash of white pepper. It’s well balanced, with fresh acidity and taut, refined tannins. Drink 2024–2036.
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Decanter
The genial Marchetti family produce two single-vineyard wines from their holdings in La Morra. Brunate is relatively powerful and often shows better, while La Serra is usually more graceful and in this vintage has the edge. The raspberry-scented nose has charm and poise thanks to its floral tones. It shows freshness and clarity but doesn't lack concentration. It's well balanced with both weight and sucrosity and no excesses. Long. Drinking Window 2020 - 2035
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.