Winemaker Notes
Intense garnet red, ample and elegant bouquet delicately spiced, with hints of flowers, small red fruits and tar. On the palate, an opulent structure buoyed by soft tannins, overlaid with ripe fruit and licorice. A 'majestic' traditional Nebbiolo with the power, harmony and complexity of an orchestra. Extraordinary aging capacity. Perfect in combination with red meat and furred game dishes, but also very rich fish dishes such as baked turbot, as well as with fine cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Deeply complex and moody aromas with a wealth of dried roses and fresh red to black cherries, as well as terracotta and fragrant spices. The palate has a core of deliciously ripe darker cherries and plums with a long, seamless and finely focused finish. Try from 2025.
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Wine Enthusiast
Truffle, wild berry, pressed rose and pine forest aromas lead the nose on this elegant Barolo. The palate is taut, lithe and youthfully austere, delivering ripe Morello cherry, crushed raspberry and licorice alongside tightly wound but refined tannins. Drink 2023–2030.
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Wine Spectator
Dense, tannic and impenetrable today, with cherry, berry, eucalyptus and tobacco flavors locked up tight. Balanced overall, so be patient. Best from 2023 through 2042.
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Tasting Panel
Tangy and elegant with refined fruit and soft spice; silky, juicy, and long. 100% Nebbiolo.
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.