Winemaker Notes
Pair with egg pastas, risottos, white meats, poultry, red meats, game, venison and aged cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Beautiful aromas of white truffles, plums and berries. HInts of spices. Full to medium body with fine tannins and beautiful licorice, berry and fennel seed. Very pretty length.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
One of the world's greatest red wine values amongst the ultra-premiums. The 2010 Producttori dei Barbaresco is an excellent and superbly balanced effort, sails easily on the palate, yet stays rich and serious to the end. Medium brick color, quite saturated; complex aromas of fragrant flowers, black fruit and sweet earth, fine richness; medium bodied, firm and well built on the palate, sweet tannins on the palate; dry, medium acidity, well balanced; classic red and black fruit flavors, with a hint of sweet earth, excellent concentration and definition; medium finish, fine textures in the aftertaste. Could be wonderful with slowly braised lamb stew. (Tasted: June 23, 2015, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
The sweet cherry, tar and menthol flavors quickly concede to stiff tannins in this beefy red, which is lively, with a mouthwatering finish of savory, minerally accents. Best from 2017 through 2027.
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.