Winemaker Notes
A Barolo with a rich and harmonious bouquet with hints of dried fruit and rose petals, with an intense and complex taste, persistent tannins that offer a very long finale.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Barolo Conca has more generous fruit, with a bit more of a broad nature throughout. It is lush with sage, fresh herbs, and ripe red cherry and is medium-bodied on the palate, though it has generous fruit up front, with ripe sweet tannins and a long finish. The 2019 is classic, but this has a lot of immediate charm as well as ripe structure and freshness.
Range: 95-97 -
Wine Spectator
Perfumed and elegant, this red features cherry, raspberry, rose and mineral flavors that show a hint of underbrush. Balanced and open, with an accent of oak spice on the lingering aftertaste.
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James Suckling
This shows a spicy nose of ground cloves, licorice, cedar, cherries and wild strawberries with hints of dried sage and crushed stones. It’s framed with firm and lightly chewy tannins, but the mid-palate is juicy and vibrant. Medium-bodied. Textural and smooth at the end.
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Vinous
The 2020 Barolo Conca is a pretty rich, full-bodied wine for La Morra, but it’s a style that works. Cinnamon, cloves, rose petal, mocha and sweet French oak weave through a core of intense, red-toned fruit. Plush, silky contours wrap it all together nicely. The Conca is the most immediate of the four crus in the range. As such, it will drink well with minimal cellaring.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Mauro Molino 2020 Barolo Conca has loads of spice and is oak-driven throughout. In terms of fruit, you get a bit of grenadine and red berry, but the mouthfeel is kicked up with spice, oak and toasted aniseed. Even the tannins are oak driven.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of crushed cherries macerating in vanilla and clove leap from the glass of this forward Barolo. Baking spices twirl away as subtle floral and earthy aromas add contrast. Immensely pleasing with ripe currants and strawberry flavors at the core, this is juicy, lush and ready to enjoy now. Elegant and soft tannins melt on the palate, making this a Barolo that is sure to bring a smile.
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.