Winemaker Notes
Bricco Ambrogio has an intense and multifaceted aromatic spectrum. The core is soft and polished through a beautiful acid-tannic balance. There is an underlying depth in this Barolo and the finish is long and nuanced.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Deep ruby/red, the 2020 Barolo Bricco Ambrogio boasts a very pretty and detailed bouquet with a floral perfume of ripe raspberries, violets, lilac, and wet stone. Elegant and medium-bodied, it has a lot of graceful details, with fine tannins, lovely concentration and a lovely and linear feel without any austerity. It has a Burgundian aesthetic and is a very well-styled wine from this site. Drink 2025-2040.
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James Suckling
Focused, compact and well-balanced with strawberries, red currants, wet stones and some bay leaves. Medium- to full-bodied with firm tannins. Ample and well-structured with plenty of volume on offer on the center-palate. Delicious and well-driven with a long finish. Try after 2028.
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Vinous
The 2020 Barolo Bricco Ambrogio is a complex, alluring wine. Dried herbs, menthol, licorice, sage, mocha and lavender play off a core of purplish/black fruit. Dark and sensual, but not at all heavy, the 2020 has a ton to offer in a plush, immediate style. This is a very sexy Barolo.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is a retaste. This wine is served first in the Scavino's portfolio of single-vineyard wines because it is the lightest in texture but also because they prefer to set their flights by geography going from north to south. From the village of Roddi, the 2020 Barolo Bricco Ambrogio reveals dark aromas of plum and blackberry. The effect is a little more monotone compared to other areas of Barolo, but you get a velvety mouthfeel with sweet tannins.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant red, exuding cherry, strawberry, orange peel, rose, mineral and wild herb aromas and flavors. Vibrant and supple in texture, this is beautifully integrated, turning more floral on the lingering aftertaste.
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.