Winemaker Notes
A classic Barolo. Excellent structure and harmony, mild tannins and balanced fruit. It is immediately approachable, but it has a very long ageing potential.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Barolo offers up a super-classic profile of tar, roses, raspberries and licorice, all wrapped around a firm core of tannins. Fresh and vibrant throughout, the Barolo impresses for its superb balance and poise. Deceptively medium in body, the wine sneaks up on the mid-palate, gaining more and more volume through to the finish. There is the subtlest hint of French oak that points to the slightly updated style the estate is going for with this bottling, but not enough to detract from the classic feel. This is a magnificent, impeccable Barolo from Pio Cesare, but it will be even better in a few years. The estate's Barolo is made from a number of vineyards in Serralunga, Grinzane Cavour, La Morra, Novello and other villages. The wine is aged mostly in cask, although 30% sees French oak. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2031.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Here is a classic expression of Barolo from a very good vintage that opens with bright fruit aromas that are embellished by carefully measured oak tones. You'll recognize blackberry, cassis, tobacco, mineral, cola and humus. The tannins are young and this wine requires more years of bottle aging.
-
James Suckling
The nose is jam packed with strawberries, spice, and flowers. The palate is full and very soft with round tannins. Strawberries, dried flowers, and chocolate notes on the finish.
-
Wine Spectator
Sweet and spicy, displaying a viscous texture that envelops the cherry, menthol and allspice notes. Firm, upright tannins on the finish keep this honest, and the spice lingers, along with notes of mineral. Needs time. Best from 2013 through 2030.
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.