Winemaker Notes
Ruby-red color tending to garnet. Intense perfume with clean scents of roses, licorice, spices and aromatic herbs. Full, elegant, and full-bodied flavor with recurring hints of the olfactory sensations. The soft color and the structure confirm it as an immediately pleasant, balanced and harmonious Barolo. The Barolo Coste di Rose reaches its maturity after 4 years from the harvest and matures further between 4 and 20 years.
An outstanding red wine for roasts, this Barolo combines exceptionally well with main courses of red meats, braised dishes and aged and piquant cheeses. When aged at length, it makes a superb sipping wine.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Ripe cherry with some candied watermelon, stone and rose petal follow through to a full body with chewy tannins that have intensity and muscle. Intense finish. Needs time to soften. Better after 2023.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fragrant purple flower, dark spice and camphor aromas form the inviting nose. Elegant and structured, the polished palate features raspberry compote, orange zest, baking spice and licorice framed in taut, refined tannins. Drink 2025–2032.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Marchesi di Barolo 2017 Barolo Coste di Rose serves up fun hints of eucalyptus and medicinal herb with rosemary essence and cola. That's what sets this wine apart, and of course, there is plenty of dark fruit and dried cherry at its core. The finish is smooth and silky with moderate length. Of these new Marchesi di Barolo releases from 2017, this has the most character, but the finish is shorter
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.