Winemaker Notes
Garnet-red in color with ruby reflections. Intense perfume with clean scent of roses, vanilla, licorice, spices and toasted oak. Gentle notes of absinthe. The flavor is full and elegant, good- bodied and austere with recurring olfactory sensations. The spicy note and the hints of wood blend perfectly. The Barolo Cannubi reaches its maturity after 6 years from the harvest and can be enjoyed throughout its life between 6 and 25 years.
With its great structure, this wine is particularly adapted to red meats, braised dishes and game in general. It is an ideal accompaniment for cheeses and our typical local cuisine.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Really perfumed with sliced-strawberry, floral and cedar character that is aromatic and prevailing. Some white truffles, too. Medium-to full-bodied with succulent fruit and tannins. So elegant and refined with a long core of fruit. Try after 2022, but already a beauty.
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Wine Spectator
A pure, intense and linear red, this exudes cherry, raspberry, rose, hay and white pepper aromas and flavors. Offers plenty of finesse but also a firm spine of tannins, which bode well for future development. Features fine harmony and a long fruity, minerally and savory aftertaste. Best from 2025
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Barolo Cannubi is characterized by chalky mineral notes that give the wine a sense of place. This wine features fruit from a southeast-facing parcel in Cannubi composed of loose, calcareous soils that tend to produce early-ripening fruit and nicely concentrated flavors. Elegant mineral tones are also part of the Cannubi package. The mouthfeel here is silky and tightly knit.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of red berry, wild herb and camphor lead the way. On the linear medium-bodied palate, dusty tannins accompany sour cherry, pomegranate and licorice. Drink through 2028.
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.