Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Deep and intense Barolo that is both spicy and earthy, offering ripe red and dark berries and hints of leather and walnut on the nose. Full-bodied, structured and broad with a velvety texture. It’s powerful and long. Better after 2027.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Paolo Conterno 2016 Barolo Ginestra Riserva is the top-shelf release from this estate. This special 4,000-bottle production ages in botte grande for a long six years. Fruit comes from a south-facing parcel with 40-year-old vines. This wine presents a big fruit profile with a powerful 15.5% alcohol content. It is redolent of smoke, scorched earth, bramble, root, licorice and cooked fruit. It is loosely textured and accessible. There are sweet fruit notes on the close.
-
Wine Spectator
This intense red features eucalyptus, cherry, plum, iron and tobacco aromas and flavors. Aligned with firm, energetic tannins and a core of ripe fruit. There are still tannins to be resolved, yet this shows fine potential. Best from 2027 through 2045.
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.