Winemaker Notes
Intense garnet-ruby red color, deep, limpid. Complex bouquet of dark fruit, blackberries, citrus and rose, balsamic notes of tobacco, licorice and quina, with nuances of forest underbrush and wet limestone. In the mouth, the wine displays firm tannins, freshness, persistence and longevity.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
The Oddero estate takes a flexible approach to releasing its Riserva bottlings, sometimes waiting up to 10 years after the vintage – the decision is based on the character of the year. It is a treat to taste the 2019 Vignarionda at this early stage, though it will certainly blossom over the next few years and promises a leisurely evolution beyond. It is scented with spicy balsamic notes, medicinal herbs, dusty sage, ash and a suggestion of iron. The palate is beautifully sculpted with exquisite balance of structure. It emphasises elegance over power, though not without the site’s signature rigour and youthful austerity. A core of minerals is waiting to explode and that acid races.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A dark but clear red color, the 2019 Barolo Riserva Vignarionda is layered and intriguing on the nose, with notes of licorice, baked cherries, spice, crushed flowers, leather, and dried earth. Medium-bodied, it keeps a good deal of focus on the palate, with a refreshing spine of acidity, refined tannins, and a long tapered finish. This is a lovely vintage of this wine to drink over the coming decades.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Oddero 2019 Barolo Riserva Vignarionda comes from a site in Serralunga d'Alba. This wine is also quite powerful and rich with dark fruit, dried orange peel, apricot, clove, allspice and dusty earth. The tannins exhibit a moment of sweetness on the mid-palate but are otherwise silky and fine. This wine is poised for medium- or long-term drinking over the next 20 years. Production is 3,800 bottles.
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Vinous
What a delight it is to re-taste the 2019 Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda. A wine of pure and total sensuality, the 2019 captures the essence of Rionda in its silky, perfumed personality and compelling inner sweetness. All the elements are so nicely balanced. This is pure and total class.
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Wine Spectator
Everything comes together in this enticing version: haunting flavors of cherry, rose and mineral; a silky texture and elegant profile; vibrant acidity for definition and drive; and refined tannins that provide support. They add up to a complex and harmonious red, with a never-ending aftertaste. Best from 2027 through 2047. 250 cases made.
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.