Winemaker Notes
Ruby red of medium intensity and garnet red hues. Aromas are intense, harmonic, with ethereal and captivating nuances and a final note of red fruit. Warm, balanced, with good persistence; already drinking well. Finishes with polished tannins and a delicate vanilla aftertaste. It is particularly enjoyable to savor its initial freshness and then appreciate the evolution of its aromas as the wine slowly warms in the glass.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Mauro Veglio has produced a focused and beautiful wine in this balanced vintage. The 2016 Barolo is a youthful and tightly wound expression that will slowly unravel and soften with time. I'd give it another five years in the bottle. The bouquet is squarely focused on Nebbiolo, with lovely berry, wild violets, tar, asphalt and licorice. The wine is elegant and tight, with fine and polished tannins. This classic Barolo represents a blend of fruit from some of the younger vines planted across three cru sites: Arborina and Gattera in La Morra and Castelletto in Monforte d'Alba. Fruit is harvested at different times and fermented separately, with short maceration times of up to 12 days on the skins. Aging takes the wine through 24 months in barrique, 80% of which is neutral wood. Rating : 93+
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Wine Enthusiast
Red-berry, dogrose and grilled herb aromas mingle together in the glass along with a whiff of eucalyptus. On the smooth full-bodied palate, notes of licorice and vanilla accent a core of ripe black cherry. Polished, enveloping tannins provide smooth support. Drink through 2028.
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.