Winemaker Notes
With its big structure, this wine is particularly adapted to main courses of red meats, braised dishes and game in general. An ideal accompaniment for cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Red berry, rose, iris, aniseed and forest floor aromas lead the nose on this structured red. The full-bodied palate offers juicy wild cherry, crushed raspberry, coffee, white pepper and cinnamon framed in firm, fine-grained tannins that lend elegance and structure.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Barolo Sarmassa is a complete wine with a vibrant bouquet that is redolent of dark cherry, blackberry, spice, leather and tobacco. Ethereal notes of chopped herb and cherry cola appear at the back. In the mouth, Barolo Sarmassa shows power, concentration and tight textural richness. It should soften and flesh out with more aging time in the bottle.
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James Suckling
A red with blueberry and mineral character and hints of stones. Medium to full body, firm tannins and flavorful finish. Better in 2017.
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Wine Spectator
Wild cherry and berry flavors are tinged by hints of herbs and leather, while the beefy tannins gather steam toward the finish. Fleshy and vibrant, with a long, savory aftertaste. Best from 2019 through 2030.
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.