Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with red meats and game. Sirloin steak, roast kid, mature hard cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The vines that bore fruit for the 2015 Barolo Riva del Bric are a bit younger in this site compared to those used for the Ginestra. This Barolo is great, but it is without the same complexity you get in the other one. It's a more sensible expression of Nebbiolo, with thick layers of black fruit followed by tar, moist earth and savory tobacco. It shows similar density and thickness of fiber that you get in the Ginestra cru, only the wine's complexity is less articulate and nuanced. Drink it in the medium term after three to 3-5 of bottle aging.
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Wine Spectator
A fresh, expressive version, featuring ripe cherry, plum, licorice, leather, tar and spice aromas and flavors. The sweetness of the ripe fruit is offset by firm, dusty tannins, yet in the end this is balanced and long. Very vibrant. Best from 2023 through 2042.
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James Suckling
Aromas of plums and berries with hints of flowers. Medium body, tight and chewy tannins and a delicious finish. There’s reserve and finesse to the structure. Drink in 2022 and beyond.
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.