Winemaker Notes
Ruby red of medium intensity and garnet red hues. 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.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is really delicious now with strawberry, chocolate, hazelnut and walnut undertones. Some floral notes, too. Medium to full body with round tannins and a delicious finish. Drinkable now, but another year or two in bottle will make it even better. And it can age. Try from 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This wine represents a blend of fruit from Arborina and Gattera in La Morra and Castelletto in Monforte d'Alba. The Mauro Veglio 2017 Barolo opens to a light garnet-ruby color with a glossy shine and a classic aromatic profile of wild berry, tar, licorice and crushed blue flowers. The 2017 vintage is a bit thinner in the mid-palate, but this expression demonstrates good tannic management.
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Wine Enthusiast
Subtle aromas of French oak, ripe dark-skinned fruit and cedar form the nose. Linear and firmly structured, the palate offers dried cherry, tangy orange zest and ground clove alongside close-grained, mouth-drying tannins that grip the close. Give the tannins a couple of years to unwind, then drink sooner rather than later to enjoy the fruit richness.
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.