Winemaker Notes
Dark garnet red. Intense, complex, sweet notes of tobacco, chocolate, ripe blackberry. oft, rich, warm, evident tannins, fresh, persistent. Match with red meat, medium aged cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A distinctive nose of vanilla and sweet spices leads off, followed by a core of ripe cherry, plum, licorice and tar flavors. The texture is smooth and plush despite the youth. Shows a fine confluence of complex fruit, spice and savory notes on the vibrant, taut finish. Best from 2022 through 2040.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Barbaresco Cole is a nicely balanced and intense red wine. The fruit shows a ripe and slightly soft quality that is not uncommon in this vintage of Barbaresco (despite how counterintuitive that may seem for what is generally accepted as a cool vintage). This wine tastes like it came from a hot vintage instead. The finish is rich and almost chewy.
Rating: 92+ -
James Suckling
The bouquet is spicy on this one with ripe morello cherries, bark, forest floor, asphalt and plenty of vanilla. Full body and juicy with bold tannins, fresh acidity and a chewy finish. Drink in 2020.
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.