Winemaker Notes
Classic Barbaresco, scent of spices, pepper, black cherries on the nose, powerful, firm, elegant and ethereal on the palate. Very long finish.
Perfect for rich pastas, red meats, game and cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This is elegant and charming, featuring cherry, rose and tobacco flavors, with just a hint of earthy, underbrush. The tannins are beginning to soften and integrate. Approachable now, but will improve with time.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Barbaresco offers up generous dark red fruit in an unusually flashy style for this wine. There is wonderful up-front richness, but then the wine loses a bit of depth on the mid-palate. The aromatics are also not quite as expressive as I would have liked. As delicious as this is, I miss the structure of 2006, the fruit of 2005 and the layered personality of 2004, any one of which might have elevated the 2007. As it stands, the 2007 Barbaresco comes across as open, accessible and ready to provide considerable pleasure, at least over the medium term.
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Wine Enthusiast
Smoke, barbecue and tar emerge from the nose of this ethereal and elegant Barbaresco. You'll also get delicate fruity notes of pressed wild berries and white cherry. The wine is tart and fresh with drying tannins and a polished feel. Pair it with boiled beef and mint sauce.
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.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.