Winemaker Notes
The wine has a garnet color with ruby-red reflections and a slight orange edge. 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.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
The wine builds slowly in the glass, revealing its power with patience. Dark red fruits shine with an almost-ripe gleam, while savory herbs and dusty earth create a counterpoint. The palate is generous but balanced, where ripe fruit shares equal billing with its supporting cast. Earth, fruit, and structure each take their turn in the spotlight, creating a performance where every element enhances the others. Drink from 2027.
-
James Suckling
A subtle wine with a restrained nose of Parma violets, austere cherry stones, licorice and balsamic. Medium-bodied with elegant, velvety tannins, chewy acidity, a huge structure and concentrated fruit. Tight, harmonious aftertaste. Try from 2026.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Barolo La Serra is contemplative and layered on the nose with aromas of redcurrants, porcini, fresh leather, anise, and floral incense. The palate is focused and pure, with its bright red fruits shining with refreshing acidity, fine, coiled tannins, and a long, graceful finish. It’s a lovely wine with a wide window for enjoyment over the coming 15-20 years.
-
Vinous
The 2021 Barolo La Serra is a gorgeous wine from Marcarini. Macerated cherry, spice, orange peel and star anise give the 2021 a decidedly exotic profile, especially in its aromatics. Barolos from La Serra can be a bit angular, but the 2021 here is distinguished by its textural depth and persistence. This is a terrific showing.
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.