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
-
James Suckling
Intense minerality to this red with hints of white pepper and plums. Full body, firm and silky tannins and a persistent finish. Very tight needing three or four years to open. Better in 2019.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Intense and fragrant, this impressive wine opens with enticing scents of rose, iris, red berry and baking spice. The structured, elegant palate delivers sour cherry, raspberry, white pepper, aromatic herb and licorice alongside youthfully firm but refined tannins. Hold for even more complexity. Drink 2019–2024.
-
Wine Spectator
A core of sweet cherry fruit is enhanced by licorice, leather, spice and tar flavors. This is vibrant and focused, with a dense matrix for support and a long, gripping finish. Best from 2019 through 2033.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Barolo Bric dël Fiasc is a delightful wine with a full and generous personality. Compared to past vintages, this edition shows a soft and round disposition that doesn't place it too far away from the similarly warm 2011 growing season. Dark fruit, spice and balsam herb are well balanced against one another. Although there are many parallels between the two vintages, this wine feels more delineated and sharply defined in terms of mouthfeel and structure. The wine closes on a tart and edgy note.
-
Wine & Spirits
One of our tasters called this wine “a meal in a glass” for its concentrated fruit flavors, chewy tannins and black truffle notes. Its tannins feel suave, weaving seamlessly through flavors of plum and raspberry, crushed fennel and spice. Juicy acidity lifts the flavors into brighter tones of cherry as it moves toward a long and poised finish.
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.