Winemaker Notes
Light ruby red and faint garnet notes. Extremely fruity and delicately harmonious. Hints of strawberry and raspberry. Absolutely fine and elegant. It has good persistence, but with a finale characterized by remarkably soft tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Blue flower, underbrush, camphor and hazelnut aromas come to the forefront. Full-bodied and elegantly structured, the palate offers ripe raspberry, Morello cherry, tobacco and a hint of coffee bean alongside firm, close-grained tannins. Drink after 2027.
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Decanter
Mauro Veglio's property in Paiagallo is at mid-altitude in what is called Vigna San Sebastiano, bordering Terlo, to which it is closer in style than the opposite side of the MGA. Garnet in colour, it has notes of watermelon, earthy strawberry and lemon leaf. Elegance and freshness prevail over the powerful palate. Nevertheless, it is full bodied, well extracted and with sweet tannins. Citrus notes and liquorice emerge on the finish. This style, with fermentation in rotomacerator and ageing in French oak barrique, tamed the austere 2017 vintage quite well.
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James Suckling
Smells like sliced strawberries with lemons and some fresh flowers. Medium-to full-bodied with chewy tannins that are focused and lightly angular. Walnut and stone undertones. Needs some time to come together. Try after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A 4,000-bottle release, the Mauro Veglio 2017 Barolo Paiagallo offers a fleeting moment of ripeness, with summer cherry and raspberry that you taste for a brief moment before it fades away and then disappears completely. The wine is abridged, abrupt and extra contoured in terms of mouthfeel, with sharp edges and firm tannic structure that both need a little extra time to soften and flesh out. There is less fruit weight on the finish, but the wine marches forward, thanks to that hot-vintage tannic power.
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Wine Spectator
A firm, tightly wound version, this red displays cherry, plum, eucalyptus and iron flavors on a lean frame. Tannins are assertive, yet not overly astringent and the finish lingers nicely. Best from 2025.
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.