Winemaker Notes
This wine is a superlative pairing for beef roasts, lamb, game and hard cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Crushed violet, herb, wild berry, leather, exotic incense, eucalyptus and balsamic aromas carry over to the elegantly structured palate underscored by a mineral vein. It's bright and fresh, with young, tightly wound tannins that need time to unfurl. Drink 2018–2031.
Cellar Selection -
James Suckling
Very solid and rich center palate here with dried berry and chocolate character and hints of hazelnuts. Full and velvety. Give this two or three years to soften.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Barolo Tortoniano shows savory characteristics of cured meat and spice with some balsam herb intensity to lift the bouquet. The mouthfeel is streamlined and tight. This wine clearly reflects the warmer conditions of the 2011 growing season and you easily recognize that extra intensity and concentration throughout this wine. The results are softer, rounder and more generous than you normally get from Michele Chiarlo's Barolo Tortoniano.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
When one sniffs the 2011 Michele Chiarlo Barolo Tortoniano, one can just imagine sitting in someone's home in Piedmont and enjoy braised beef stew. This well-made wine is a beautiful Nebbiolo—one of the world's most important and sometimes mysterious grape variety to new world wine drinkers—requires more attention than the straightforward Cabernet Sauvignon. From the whiff of red fruits, savory herbs, and aromatic flowers, there is a sense of complete deliverance. Nebbiolo's characteristics can be quite subtle, and one must pay close attention. Drinks quite nicely now. (Tasted: September 12, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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.