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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James Suckling
This Barolo frames a stunning nose with intense, captivating rose perfume, chamomile tea, earl grey and tarte tatin. The palate is chewy and structured from every side, the confident tannins pushing the fruit inwards and compressing layers of vivacious red fruit with panache and style. Mineral yet fruity on the finish, and very long. Drink from 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of dark-skinned berry, coconut, French oak and blue flower lead the nose. On the tense taut palate, fine-grained tannins accompany mature plum, dried cherry, vanilla and coffee bean while fresh acidity keeps it balanced. Drink 2024–2036.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Marchesi di Barolo 2016 Barolo Sarmassa delivers a solid and powerful presentation with aromas of dark cherry and plum backed by smoked meat, tobacco and savory spice. It ages in both French and Slavonian oak for two years. The Sarmassa cru, from a southeast-facing slope sitting at about 350 meters in altitude, delivers intensity and bold fruit flavors with licorice, smoke and chalky mineral. Despite the intensity of the bouquet, this wine is subdued in terms of mouthfeel. There is a point of tannic tightness on the close, but the mouthfeel is soft overall, treading lightly on the palate.
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.