Winemaker Notes
Mauro Molino’s worldwide ambassador. This wine is the perfect manifesto of our company; a dynamic reality, conscious of its traditions. Just like the character of this «classic» Barolo. Ideal in combination with all types of meat, cheese and pasta.
An intense bouquet with hints of ripe fruit and rose petals. Persistent in taste, thanks to its fine and enveloping tannins that give an elegant pleasantness to this wine
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A more savory edge to the nose with tar and walnuts across dried roses and red berries. The palate delivers a succulent, focused and flavorful, red-cherry core with smooth tannins framing it neatly. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Barolo is a slightly more subdued and downplayed expression of Nebbiolo from a vintage that generally unleashes the explosive and exuberant side of the grape. In Mauro Molino's version, the fruit is contained and packaged in neat little aromatic compartments, starting first with wild berry and moving successively to rose, spice, leather, dark licorice, tar and cigar. You'd do well to highlight those subtleties by serving it with some delicate crackers and goose liver pâté.
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Wine Spectator
Austere in aroma, this red offers cherry, menthol and white pepper flavors. Elegant and vibrant, with well-mannered tannins lining the finish. Shows fine balance and length. Best from 2021 through 2033.
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.