Winemaker Notes
Intense ruby red with orange reflections. Bouquet of ripe fruit nose of currants and raspberries with hints of violet. Flavor is balanced with silky, sweet tannins, excellent structure and a long finish.
Pairs well with red meats, braises and medium to long-aged cheeses made with cow or sheep milk.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Barolo Le Coste Di Monforte is somewhat more introspective, with notes of dried black cherry, menthol, dried herbs, and baked earth. The palate is rich with game, cola, and building tannins as well as a long finish. Hold in cellar 3-5 years and drink 2024-2046.
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James Suckling
A ripe, velvety red with lots of ripe strawberries, chocolate and some hazelnuts. It’s full-bodied with ripe tannins and a flavorful finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Of these three new Baroli from Pecchenino, the 2016 Barolo le Coste di Monforte shows the greatest focus and sharpness. The other two wines are noticeably softer in terms of their aromatic direction compared to this wine. Le Coste di Monforte offers dark fruit, balsam herb, spice, campfire ash and ferrous earth in nicely balanced proportions. This wine sees long skin maceration times lasting 60 days (at 28 degrees Celsius), concluding with 36 months in oak cask. This gives the wine its rich flavor profile. Fruit comes from a site measuring just under a hectare at a high altitude of 450 meters above sea level.
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.