Winemaker Notes
It achieves its best expression when served with red meats, particularly game, and with dishes dressed with truffle. It is also excellent with fresh egg pasta and meat sauce, and with risotto, as well as medium-mature cow’s milk and goat’s milk cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very pretty aromas of terra-cotta, ripe fruit and hints of chilies. Full body, round and silky tannins, bright acidity and an attractive combination of citrus and plum. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
This fragrant, juicy red opens with scents of perfumed blue flower, ripe black-skinned berry, leather and dark baking. The chewy palate offers fleshy black cherry, crushed raspberry, cinnamon, star anise and a hint of mocha alongside well-integrated tannins. Drink 2019–2024. Cellar Selection.
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Wine Spectator
Saturated with cherry, strawberry, white pepper and mineral flavors, this red is lean yet intense, offering a fine balance between dusty tannins and sweet fruit. best from 2019 through 2035
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Tasting Panel
Smooth, bright and racy with elegant texture and flavors of cranberry and plum; silky and balanced, long and graceful.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Massolino delivers the right stuff with this classic expression of Nebbiolo. The 2012 Barolo is slightly plump and succulent. That more-robust characteristic is commonly found in this vintage. The wine offers a steady stream of black fruit, licorice and smoke-like aromas. The tannins are medium in strength, and the wine delivers more dark-fruit richness on the finish.
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.
