Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Cherry, mint and earth flavors dominate in this vibrant, tensile red. Floral and strawberry elements peek through as this builds on the palate, finishing with a tannic phalanx of mineral, licorice and tar notes. Very complex and long. Best from 2020 through 2036.
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James Suckling
A purity and balance to this young Barolo with very pretty fruit and ultra-fine tannins. Full-bodied, dense, yet refined and polished. Very long too. A beauty. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
Forest floor, new leather, menthol and wild berry aromas take shape in the glass. The structured palate delivers dried black cherry, raspberry compote, licorice and tobacco alongside youthfully firm tannins. A mineral note closes the lingering finish. This is one of the few 2012s that show serious aging potential. Drink 2022–2032.
Cellar Selection -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There's a lot of power and intensity that lifts off the 2012 Barolo Margheria. This is a confident and proud expression of Nebbiolo that boasts a frank and upfront array of accessible aromas. Blackberries and dried cherries are followed by spice, tar and crushed stone. There's a pretty tail of powdered licorice on the long 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.
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.