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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James Suckling
Soft and easy with dark berry, plum and mushroom character. Some cream too. Full-bodied, round and savory.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Boasting a soft and yielding style, the 2011 Barolo Coste di Rose will appeal those looking for a more approachable Barolo. The wine is rich and dark with aromas of dark cherry, candied blackberry, spice, licorice and resin. The cherry component is dominant. But baking spice and cardamom also play supporting roles. The tannins are plush and rich and, overall, the wine shows a cheerful personality and an upfront character. This Barolo is well suited to near and medium-term drinking.
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Wine Enthusiast
Pretty aromas of blue flower, rose, wild berry and graphite lead the way. The firm palate delivers mature black cherry, raspberry, star anise, black pepper and chopped sage alongside bright acidity and tightly knit tannins that need to unwind. Drink 2018–2026.
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Wine Spectator
Black cherry, plum, leather and tar aromas and flavors get a lift from solid tannins in this red. The finish is long and fresh. Just needs time to meld. 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.