Winemaker Notes
Full body vintage with ripe red fruit, solid tannic structure, good drinkability, intense and complex
wines, great refinement and breed, lots of red fruit notes.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Asili has a warmer microclimate than most of the other vineyards here. It was first produced by Produttori as a single-vineyard wine in 1967. The 2015 is tight, tannic and reserved, with some bright strawberry, raspberry, cranberry and vanilla creeping out of the glass. In the mouth it has some meaty savouriness, and gives a hint of the complexity to come, but as it stands this needs a lot more time to become approachable. Scored for its potential.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of the protagonists in this group of nine, the Produttori del Barbaresco 2015 Barbaresco Riserva Asili (with some 13,333 bottles made) shows bright cherry fruit, dried raspberry and blood orange. The wine's delicate aromatic layering continues with rusty iron, aniseed, tea leaf and camphor ash. Those lifted and vertical aromas contribute to the energy and vibrancy that this wine awards to the palate. The finish is extremely polished and tight, and those pretty flavors are folded neatly into the wine's silky texture. This wine has many years, or decades, of aging built into its inner clock.
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Wine Spectator
Bright cherry and berry fruit picks up a saline edge in this fleshy red, which stays defined and vibrant despite the assertive tannins. In the end, all the components are in the right proportion; this just needs time to integrate. Best from 2023 through 2043.
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Wine Enthusiast
Wild berry, violet, new leather, forest floor and eucalyptus aromas lift out of the glass. The elegant, full-bodied palate delivers dried black cherry, raspberry compote, licorice and dried mint alongside taut, polished tannins. Given the hot, dry growing season, this is a more powerful and concentrated version of Asili.
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.