Winemaker Notes
Deep garnet red with bright hues which naturally evolve with age. Intense, very complex, offering a wide range of notes; with remarkable red fruit combined with floral and spicy hints. The palate is robust, rich and austere. It perfectly reflects the great complexity of the soil in Serralunga d’Alba.
The elegant companion for important rice and pasta dishes, such as risotto cooked in Barolo, and rich and tasty main courses, such as roast meats.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This gorgeous red opens with classic aromas of forest floor, wild berry, crushed herb, blue flower and a whiff of menthol. It's all about structure and finesse, delivering succulent Marasca cherry, raspberry compote, licorice, baking spice and crushed mint flavors. Bright acidity and firm, polished tannins give it wonderful balance and a smooth texture.
Cellar Selection -
James Suckling
The pedigree has stood this in good stead in 2014. Aromas of cassis and red cherries arrive in amongst leafy and dried floral notes. The palate has a wealth of strawberries and light, bright cherries with light, easy tannins. Approachable now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This cru in Serralunga d'Alba delivers a slightly softer, richer and more accessible expression of Nebbiolo. The 2014 Barolo Parafada is bursting with dark fruit that rushes the senses with delightful waves of dark fruit intensity. The wine does boast very firm structure with a crisp tannic bite. It surely needs to soften with more bottle aging, but I don't think you need to wait too long either. Only 4,800 bottles were made.
Rating: 92+ -
Wine & Spirits
The Massolino family’s 55-year-old vines and protected, southfacing exposition in Serralunga’s Parafada cru handled the rainy 2014 growing season well: This is dark and fleshy, with brisk acidity surging through its cherry and wild raspberry fruit, picking up notes of cedar, smoke and graphite that linger through the finish.
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Wine Spectator
A complex mix of cherry, strawberry, tea, wild herb and tar flavors marks this exuberant young Barolo. Tightly wound, yet balanced, with a lingering aftertaste and grip 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.
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.