Winemaker Notes
Dark garnet red. Elegant, round nose with lingering fruity, spicy, balsamic and mineral undertones. Strong, warm body, with powerful aromas and well-balanced flavours. Long, intense finish. Lends itself to lengthy ageing, with a cellar life even extending to over fifteen years.
Pairs well with roast veal, rump steak cooked in Barolo wine, mature cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Barolo Ginestra Riserva is every bit as special as the handsome wooden cases in which this collection is sold, along with a newly redesigned label. It's a gorgeous vintage, very full and generous, whose warmer temperatures are reflected in lots of dark, black, rich and ripe penetrating fruit. The Riserva's texture really emerges as unique because it is woven tightly and dense, yet there is ample softness and richness here. It is another Piedmont gem for your cellar.
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James Suckling
Attractive dried flowers and herbs on offer here with a thread of dried cherries and a subtle, meaty edge. The palate has a long and juicy draw with fresh and vibrant tannins that give firm, chalky grip. Good ripeness and balance.
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Wine Spectator
A distinctive aroma of orange rind and flavors of cherry, plum, tar, iron and eucalyptus highlight this opulent, densely structured red. Still youthful and tannic, but going in the right direction. Best from 2023 through 2040.
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.