Winemaker Notes
Dark red color, with aromas of licorice and blue and blackberry. Full-bodied Nebbiolo, with silky tannins and a long elegant finish. A wonderful balance of elegance and power.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Fragrant and elegantly structured, this beautiful wine opens with scents of perfumed berry, rose petal and dark berry. The full-bodied palate delivers layers of ripe black cherry, crushed raspberry, white pepper and baking spice alongside a backbone of firm, refined tannins and fresh acidity. It's still young so give it time to reach its full potential. Drink 2019–2026.
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James Suckling
A tight and chewy wine with polished tannins. Full and dense with wonderful fruit and a mineral, stone character. Racy wine. Better in 2017.
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Wine Spectator
Menthol and eucalyptus accents shade the cherry core in this muscular red. Vibrant, with energy that pulsates and carries the sweet fruit and underbrush notes through the finish. Big tannins. Best from 2019 through 2033.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Barolo Bric dël Fiasc offers impressive integrity and shine considering the warm conditions of the growing season. This is a pristine and supple wine that delivers a steady stream of berry, spice, herbal and balsam characteristics. The mouthfeel is streamlined and direct in approach, but there is good structure to hold the wine firmly together.
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.