Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with. tagliolini with d’Alba truffe, stew, risotto with Barolo, well-matured cheeses.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
From the stellar 2010 vintage, this gorgeous wine lives up to the year's lofty reputation. It opens with enticing scents of dried rose petal, truffle, crushed aromatic herb, woodland berry and a whiff of tar. On the full-bodied elegantly structured palate, star anise, mint, tobacco and a hint of mineral add depth to a juicy red-berry core. It's beautifully balanced, with bright acidity and taut silky tannins. Drink 2020–2040.
Cellar Selection -
Tasting Panel
Toasty with a touch of licorice on the nose; smooth and elegant with a lush style that shows considerable restraint. Deep and stunningly complex with a long, balanced finish.
-
Wine Spectator
A gorgeous bouquet of licorice, cherry liqueur, leather and tar sets the pace here. Turns more austere on the palate, with firm, ripe tannins, before dovetailing on the long finish. The nose alone is worth the price of admission.A gorgeous bouquet of licorice, cherry liqueur, leather and tar sets the pace here. Turns more austere on the palate, with firm, ripe tannins, before dovetailing on the long finish. The nose alone is worth the price of admission.
-
James Suckling
Relatively strong nuttiness and some dried woody notes, ass well as a reticent red- and dark-cherry thread. The palate has an impressive core of linear tannins and a long, deep and even-paced finish. Try from 2022.
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.