Winemaker Notes
Full body vintage with ripe red fruit, solid tannic structure, good drinkability solid structure, intense minerality, spicy fruit, slow maturing tannins
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is usually the last wine in this series of nine, representing the most powerful and concentrated side of the Nebbiolo spectrum as interpreted by Produttori del Barbaresco. The 2016 Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano (with 12,516 bottles released) is rich and darkly saturated, with a plush and opulent bouquet that is redolent of red berry, dried raspberry and candied orange peel. This is a blend of fruit from vineyards owned by the Gonella, Maffei, Marcarino, Rivella, Rocca and Vacca families. You feel the density of the wine on the palate, thanks to firm tannins and lots of extra fruit weight and texture. Despite that extra muscle (and the usual 15% alcohol content), Montestefano also shows a soft and especially enriched personality.
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Wine Spectator
Singed by licorice, the plum, black cherry, tar and iron flavors are dense and tightly packed with the solid structure in this dynamic red. The fruit component offers great purity and intensity midpalate, followed by a strong grip of tannins 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.