Winemaker Notes
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
An impressive red with layers of soft and velvety fruit with blueberry and hazelnut character. Coco too. Full body, with ripe tannins and a long, long finish. This is a single vineyard wine near Serralunga Best ever from here. Try in 2017 but so great now. Decant two hours before if you need to drink it asap.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Barolo Coste di Rose sees fruit sourced from a vineyard site in the Barolo township that faces towards Bussia and Monteforte d’Alba. Immediately noticeable is the bright energy and intensity of the fruit and the dark, richly concentrated appearance of the wine. There’s a vein of sweetness that runs straight through this wine, doing a great job of pulling it together as one. This very approachable Barolo will
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Wine Spectator
Round and open-knit, this cherry- and blackberry-infused red is accented by earth, leather and tobacco notes. The tannins emerge on the finish, which lingers with earth and spice accents. Best from 2017 through 2026.
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.