Winemaker Notes
This wine is well-matched with typical appetizers from Langhe: raw meat, the vegetable flan, eggs with truffles. Excellent with tajarin (Piedmont spaghetti), roasts, cheeses of sheep and goat milk and cheeses mildly seasoned.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
An elegant style, with focused flavors of cherry, strawberry, earth and eucalyptus in concert with the firm structure. The finish is well-marked by tannins, so be patient. Best from 2022 through 2040.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2014 Marchesi di Barolo Coste di Rose is expansive, slightly elevated, yet stylish and persistent. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers aromas and flavors of hard candy, red fruits, and shading of oak. Pair it with a grilled, well-marbled ribeye. (Tasted: February 21, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
Gentle floral aromas that makes this really fragrant, delicate and alluring. Has a palate that showcases a light, bright strawberry core. Very balanced, even and approachable. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
Rose, iris and menthol aromas take center stage. On the bright elegant palate, supple tannins give polished support to juicy Marasca cherry, raspberry and a hint of baking spice. Drink 2020–2026.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Barolo Coste di Rose plays its strongest cards in the mouth. The bouquet shows a mix of aromas that span from wild fruit and rose to campfire ash and grilled herb. The effect is a bit muddled, and this Barolo needs more time to take on its shape and volume with extra years of cellar aging. The finish is polished and silky with medium intensity.
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.