Winemaker Notes
This wine shows a brilliant garnet-red color with warmer tinges developing over time. Its unmistakable bouquet is intense yet ethereal and very persistent, occasionally spiced, with aromas of truffles, licorice, and dried flowers. On the palate, it is dry with substantial, full-bodied tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A fresh and fragrant wine with assertive aromas of blood oranges, dried roses, aromatic herbs and a hint of citrus. Full-bodied with firm tannins. It’s tightly knit and muscular yet balanced, with a blond tobacco aftertaste. Drinkable now, but best from 2027.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from vineyards in Bricco Chiesa, Capalot, Bussia, and Fiasco, the 2022 Barolo pours a medium red hue. Aromas of cherries, spice, potpourri, and fresh herbs emerge from the glass. Medium-bodied, it offers refreshing purity, with balanced acidity and excellent length. Bussia was particularly dry in this vintage and suffered more hydric stress, which led the fruit to be included in the classico rather than bottled separately. This is a beautifully balanced and classic expression that is already appealing. Potential production is roughly 40,000 to 45,000 bottles. Drink 2026-2036.
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Vinous
The 2022 Barolo is a gorgeous entry-level wine. Kirsch, cedar, sweet pipe tobacco, crushed autumn leaves and licorice are some of the notes that take shape in the glass. More than anything else, I am so impressed with the wine's depth in a vintage marked by light wines. The 2022 benefits from the inclusion of fruit from Vigna Mondoca, where yields were too low for a commercial release, and Capalot, which was also not bottled separately. A lot of care goes into this wine, and it truly shows. This is a great achievement. If I could only buy one wine of these 2022s, the straight Barolo would be it.
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.