Winemaker Notes
Mauro Veglio Barolo Arborina is distinguished by fruit and freshness, an almost ethereal finesse, extreme elegance and moderate concentration. All supported by a fine, intense and harmonious bouquet.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of licorice, cassis and freshly cut cedar. The palate is medium- to full-bodied with blue fruit and firm, precise, focused tannins. Well executed. It will need at least three years to soften. Better from 2028.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Mauro Veglio 2021 Barolo Arborina stands apart for its special bouquet that features a hint of chamomile tea or wild nettle layered in with the dark fruit and earthy aromas of this important vineyard. The Veglio family has three hectares in this MGA site, but fruit for this wine comes from one hectare with vines 35 years old and older. Grapes that are not used for this wine go to the Barolo. There is a distinctly botanical quality to this wine that is quite beautiful and ties in with cola, licorice and iron ore. The wine ages in barrique for 24 months, with 25% new oak. Production is 6,500 bottles.
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Wine Spectator
Cherry and raspberry fruit is wrapped in an embrace of sweet spices, along with earth and tar accents. Firms up as this red extends across the finish line, where dense, dusty tannins leave their mark. Best from 2028 through 2045.
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.