Winemaker Notes
Deep garnet red. This wine offers us highly complex, open and very pleasant aromas; flowers and scents of red fruit dominate but notes of hay, spices and tobacco also provide great depth and fullness. Rich, elegant, sometimes austere, capable of combining great pleasure and excellent ageing potential.
This wine achieves its finest expression when paired with red meat, particularly game, and truffles. It is also excellent with fresh-egg pasta dishes with meat sauces, or risotto, not to mention medium-mature cow’s and goat’s milk cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2020 Barbaresco Albesani has more substance and depth than the straight Barbaresco. The differences between the two wines today aren't that marked at the outset, but that comes with aeration. Macerated cherry, plum, spice, lavender, rose petal and sage develop with time in the glass. All of the richness and power of Albesani comes through. For readers who want to understand what Albesani is all about, this is it!
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Wine Spectator
Freshly mown hay and green tea accents frame cherry, strawberry and white pepper flavors in this sleek yet dense red. Overall, this remains balanced and elegant, with a beam of fruit persisting on the aftertaste. Best from 2026 through 2042.
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.