Winemaker Notes
Ruby-red with garnet highlights, it has a sumptuous bouquet, with clear-cut overtones of ripe plums, tobacco, mint, rosemary, cinnamon and dried mushrooms. Very dense, closely-woven tannins give the taste a well-knit sensation, together with softness and balance.
Ideal with big red meat dishes and medium or mature cheeses, it also provides pleasant company for after-dinner conversation.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Ripe cherry and currant fruit lends a natural sweetness to this red, while floral, cut hay, licorice and tobacco notes add depth and complexity. Balanced and long, with vibrant acidity driving the mouthwatering finish. Best from 2023 through 2045.
-
Wine & Spirits
This will appeal to a wide audience of wine lovers, the wine rich and round, with notes of dark chocolate, espresso and peppery spice enriching the succulent flavors of dark cherry and pomegranate.
-
James Suckling
Attractive, ripe and pure red-cherry aromas here with lilting, rose-tinged florals. The palate has a smooth and fleshy core of succulent ripe red-cherry flavor and an open-knit weave of ripe tannins.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There is dark spice and savory cured meat in the 2015 Barolo Lazzarito, served in elegant doses. This wine made with fruit from Serralunga d'Alba fruit has plenty of structure, though not as much complexity. It's another very accessible and easy-drinking wine from Casa E di Mirafiore. I could see it pairing nicely with an ossobuco alla
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.