Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Nebbiolo
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A graceful wine focused on sweet violets, strawberries, cinnamon and leesy savoriness. Medium-bodied with ripe, velvety tannins and crisp, integrated acidity. The long, almost salty, finish is full of juiciness and vibrancy. Drink or hold.
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Vinous
The 2020 Barbaresco Riserva Martinenga Gaiun is gorgeous. Deep, ample and creamy, the 2022 possesses notable depth and fine balance. This is an especially open-knit, expressive young Gaiun. Readers will have a hard time keeping their hands off this jewel of a wine. Red cherry fruit, star anise, blood orange, mint and spice open gradually in the glass. The 2020 spent two years in French oak. There's a bit less new wood impact here than in the past, which works well.
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Wine Spectator
This is broad, with its cherry, plum, earth, menthol and spice flavors riding a wave of refined tannins. There's a little heat in the balance and a rigid finish, with fine dimension and a beam of fruit poking through in the end. Best from 2027 through 2043.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pouring a jeweled red color, the 2020 Barbaresco Riserva Gaiun Martinenga is expressive with detailed purity and shows off notes of fresh fennel, vibrant ripe cranberries, fresh thyme, and pressed roses. It keeps a medium-bodied frame, although has a bit more richness, with a plushness to the tannins and refined notes of leather on the finish. It’s a very nice Riserva to drink over the coming 15 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fragrant waves of orange zest and rosewood lead an intensely aromatic profile layered with mixed spices that bridge sweet and savory. Fresh dried strawberries and tart cherries energize each sip. The wine flows with polished grace showing refined tannins that speak to elegance and composure. This Gaiun Martinega delivers immediate pleasure while maintaining the sophistication expected from this prestigious site. A beautifully composed Barbaresco that's drinking wonderfully now.
Editors' Choice
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.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.