Winemaker Notes
Ruby red in color. The nose is intense and elegant. The palate is full in the mouth, well-balanced, and has well-integrated tannins.
Pair this wine alongside your favorite game or red meat dishes.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Restrained, slightly low-key wine at the very first sniff, then tantalizing aromas of vibrant orange peel and dried flowers emerge, together with a lot of cinnamon. Full-bodied, showing firm, velvety tannins with the slightly dusty texture that’s typical of nebbiolo. Good weight and density, as well as poise and balance, with a long, refreshing finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Fruit for this blended wine comes from the villages of Barbaresco (Muncagota and Ronchi) and Neive (Cottà and Basarin). The Moccagatta 2022 Barbaresco makes a lovely powdery first impression with chalky aromas followed by wild cherry, blue flower, licorice and something citrusy like kumquat or pink grapefruit. The alcohol is recorded as 15% in this hot-vintage wine, but that heat is not too powerful. With 12 months of aging in barrique, you get an open-knit texture and grippy tannins.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Barbaresco is a saturated red color and is spicy and ripe on the nose with notes of crushed cherries, dark spices, and fresh tobacco. It’s concentrated on the palate, with a ripe feel, medium to full-bodied richness, a more robust tannin structure, and a ripe finish with good length.
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Wine Spectator
Vanilla, cinnamon and toast flavors introduce this cherry- and plum-flavored red, with flashes of tobacco and euca- lyptus on the spicy, sweet fruit 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.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.