Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This focused red displays a beam of black cherry at the center, with eucalyptus, licorice and tobacco flavors swirling around the edges. Fresh and vibrant, with well-integrated tannins on the long mineral aftertaste. Best from 2015 through 2035.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Barolo Castelletto is simply lovely. This is the darkest of Veglio’s 2006s. Dark plums, cherries, violets, mint, minerals and menthol flow effortlessly from the glass. The wine turns a touch firmer in the glass, as the youthful tannins take over, then finishes with substantial density and persistence on the close, where sweet balsamic notes add a final dash of complexity. The Castelletto is the most structured and potentially long-lived of Veglio’s 2006 Barolos. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2024.
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James Suckling
Very intense aromas of dark berries and dark chocolate. Full and silky on the palate. Lovely texture to this wine. But still very tight and not giving much. Needs bottle time. Try after 2014.
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Wine Enthusiast
Barolo Castelletto opens with ripe aromas of blackberry and strawberry with background tones of old leather, spice, espresso bean, tar and root beer. There are drying mineral tones as well and the wine ends with young, slightly astringent tannins.
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.