Winemaker Notes
Garnet with brilliant luminous hues. On the nose, it is inviting and complex with notes of rose petals, juniper berries and fine spices. It has ample, good structure with a silky texture of tannins which already give a surprising harmony to the juvenile stage of this Barolo. Remarkable elegance and persistence.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Inviting aromas recalling truffle, wild mint, woodland berry and spice escape the glass along with whiffs of rose. The aromas carry over to the savory, elegant palate together with crushed raspberry and star anise while taut, fine-grained tannins provide structure. Fresh acidity keeps it balanced. It's already approachable but also shows great mid-term aging potential. Best After 2024
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Michele Chiarlo 2018 Barolo Tortoniano reveals a hint of vintage ripeness with dried raspberry and cherry behind grilled herb and anise seed. The Tortoniano is tight and firm now in its youth with some mild tannic astringency that will surely relax with just a few more years of bottle age. The wine needs four or five years to flesh out and gain in volume.
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Wine Spectator
A spicy style, with a core of cherry and berry fruit augmented by eucalyptus, tobacco, iron and toasty oak notes. This has intensity, yet ends on the elegant side, courtesy of vibrant acidity.
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James Suckling
Rich red berries, thickened up with sous-bois notes. Medium-bodied with light tannins and a touch of firmness to the finish.
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.