Winemaker Notes
Scent of spices, pepper and black cherries with ripe red fruit and spicy flavors with a balanced tannic finish.
Pair with fesh pasta, meat dishes, particularly lamb and feathered game, mild cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Barbaresco is a bit more concentrated and more fruit-forward, with some notes of kirsch and licorice. Medium to full in its fruit profile, with generous black raspberry, turned soil, and a long finish, it is a lovely wine, with an approachable nature that is drinking well right now. Best After 2023
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Wine & Spirits
The Produttori del Barbaresco lost about 20 percent of their crop in the 2017 growing season due to frost and hail in the spring and a long drought in the summer, but what remained gave a fresh and exuberant wine packed with flavors of vibrant red cherry and zesty notes of orange peel. The Produttori typically offer one of the best quality-price ratios for Barbaresco, and the exciting 2017 version is no exception.
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Wine Spectator
A beam of cherry introduces this lithe red, shaded by tar, eucalyptus, white pepper and earth notes. This is dense, with the tannins leaving a firm impression on the finish.
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.