Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Extremely fruity and intense with blueberry, strawberry and hints of cedar aroma. Full body, very tannic and rich with loads of fruit. Fresh finish. Starting to close up now. Try in 2016 when the wine will be more open and softer.
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Wine Enthusiast
Enticing aromas of violet, rose, red berry, vineyard dust and alpine herbs float from the glass. The savory, bright palate delivers crushed Morello cherry, red raspberry, graphite and clove alongside polished tannins and brisk acidity. Already surprisingly accessible, it will be even better in a few years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Barolo is sourced from five or six vineyards in Castiglione Falletto and Barolo. This is a gorgeous wine with a silky entry and loads of elegant fruit, cassis, licorice, tar and cola. There’s a real sense of energy and zest in the mouth that is not just due to the freshness of the acidity. It comes from the pristine quality of fruit in 2010.
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Wine Spectator
This is austere and compact, with an earthy underbrush element complementing the dried black cherry, anise, tar and tobacco flavors. The persistent finish shows severe tannins.
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.