Winemaker Notes
Ruby red color. Elegant nose with refined red fruit notes. On the palate, it is complex, with a full-body, silky, rich, with a long finish.
Pairs well with fresh egg pastas, risottos, white meats, red meats, venison and cheeses
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2021 Barbaresco Riserva Asili is an alluring beauty that melds together the signatures of this site with the structure of the year at this address. Floral, bright and bursting with energy, the Asili is a star. Blood orange, kirsch, red-toned fruit, cedar, mint and spice rush from the glass. Here, too, readers will have to be patient. This is pure and total sensuality.
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Wine Spectator
Bursting with raspberry, black cherry, violet and mineral aromas and flavors, this red is supple and juicy. Its refined tannins are offset by youthful flesh and provide plenty of support for future development. Balanced, with a long finish that picks up notes of wild herbs.
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James Suckling
The graceful elegance of the Asili vineyard is apparent here, with wild strawberries, red currants, fresh and dried flowers, watermelon and restrained depth. Full-bodied, dense and powerful. Very chewy and vibrant, tense and tight, with a long, sleek finish and fine-grained tannins. March 2026 release. Drink or hold.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Barbaresco Riserva Asili pours a bright red color and offers appealing aromas of incense, preserved cranberries, wildflowers, and orange zest. Medium-bodied, it offers mouthwatering salinity, refreshing acidity, and fine tannins that carry through a long finish. I love where this wine is already, capturing terrific energy and balance.
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.