Winemaker Notes
This wine is a superlative pairing for fettuccine with porcini, braised red meats, and well-matured cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of leather, dried strawberries and lavender follow through to a full body, ultra-fine tannins and a racy, beautiful finish. Goes on for minutes. Drink in 2019.
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Wine Enthusiast
Lovely scents of rose, violet, perfumed berry, cake spice and a whisper of menthol lead the way on this fragrant red. Savory and precise, the linear luminous palate doles out crushed raspberry, juicy Marasca cherry, licorice and clove. It's well balanced, with fresh acidity and polished tannins. Drink 2020–2028.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is Michele Chiarlo's entry-level Barolo that sees fruit sourced from the Cerequio cru. The wine is named after the calcareous marl clay soils of sedimentary marine origin that characterize this site. The soils are from the Tortonian period (nine million years ago). The 2013 Barolo Tortoniano reveals a dry and mineral-rich bouquet. Those aromas are enhanced by bright tones of dried raspberry and cherry.
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Wine Spectator
Aromatic and silky, this red delivers macerated cherry, raspberry, rose petal and mineral flavors. Balanced and soft, with gentle tannins and fine length. Best from 2020 through 2032.
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.