Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby garnet red. Rich, with red fruit notes, rose petals and earth, hints of spice and mint. The palate is wrapped by its noble tannins of fine-grained, sweet, silky tannins.
Serve with red meat roasts , all game, truffle dishes and ripe cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Super charged on the nose, this is a step up again from both the Mariondino and Mosconi, albeit with a similar aromatic profile - floral tones and sweet red cherry pits but more expressive. Gorgeous minerality and excellent precision on the nose too with strawberry, red cherry and raspberry notes. Excellent acidity, this also has abundant tannins but they are slightly more velvety, rounded and coursing. The texture is so appealing but this has a different depth and edge of minerality to it, slightly dry on the palate but velvety with rich but defined notes of red fruits,cherry sweets, cola, milk chocolate and violets. The florality is there on the palate too. This is smooth, juicy and clean - you get the succulence but also the salinity, the ripe fruit and plushness but also the refinement and delicacy of each individual flavour. This is seriously expressive, fully flavoured with such a long length, it goes on and on. A supremely fine wine, I love it!
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James Suckling
Complex nose of ripe red fruit with sweet tobacco-like spice, flowers and orange cream. Full-bodied with a dense core of fruit and grainy tannin that is still riding high. Needs plenty of time to integrate and spread.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Barolo Bussia is slightly subdued (almost) compared to the other new releases from this estate, although you'd need to take that comment in context since all of Parusso's wine bat above their weight. With 15% alcohol, this vintage shows dark fruit, spicy plum, cherry skin and potting soil. The Bussia is always a hallmark of Mark Parusso's unique winemaking approach. Fruit comes from the Rocche and Munie vineyards in the Bussia MGA of Monforte d'Alba. Best After 2025
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Vinous
The 2020 Barolo Bussia marries elegance and power. Dark, spiced and super-expressive, the Bussia is striking in its beauty. Rose petal, mint, orange peel, lavender and blue fruits open first, followed by a whole range of balsamic inflections that develop in the glass.
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Wine Spectator
This red is marked by effusive aromas of steeped cherry, plum, eucalyptus, hay and vanilla. Quickly accedes to dry, dusty tannins, but never gets too overbearing. Shows a nice, ripe core of fruit. Best from 2025.
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.