Winemaker Notes
-Wine Spectator
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2000 Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda is a superb opening to this lunch. Hints of cedar, sweet pipe tobacco, dried herbs, mint, underbrush and spice are all indicative of a Barolo that has reached maturity. The 2000 has enough freshness to drink well for another handful of years, but I would not puh my luck too far beyond that.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Readers looking for a more accessible vintage of the estate’s Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda will delight in the 2000. Though not terribly expressive in its aromatics, it reveals the vintage’s opulent qualities in its abundant super-ripe fruit and fleshy, supple personality. With some air it is drinking well today and will offer highly enjoyable drinking.
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Wine & Spirits
The dense structure and ferrous minerality common to Serralunga are rendered more open and plush in Franco Massolino's '00 Vigna Rionda. With subtle violet aromas, ripe plum flavors and softened tannins, it's altogether elegant. An excellent match for grilled lamb chops.
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.