Winemaker Notes
Ruby red color. Bouquet of dark, ripe fruit. Full-bodied and rich on the palate with a powerful finish.
Pairs well with fresh egg pastas, risottos, white meats, red meats, venison and cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Compared to the 2020 vintage, the 2019 Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano is a whole other wine. This expression is rich, abundant and defined by an elegant mineral tone that gives it backbone and linearity. It boasts plenty of dark fruit at its core with a presentation that is firmly structured and tightly coiled. The wine's tannic structure is bold and powerful.
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Wine Enthusiast
Heady aromas that open with black raspberries, cherry compote and mixed sweet and savory spices. Subtle floral and herbal notes bolt in to add to the depth of the nose. Broad and rich across the palate with a generous dollop of mixed berry preserves with cracked pepper and dried herbs. The tannins are masterful with a refined nature that calls out the soul of Nebbiolo and shows how well this wine will age.
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Vinous
The 2019 Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano is perhaps the most complete of the 2019 Riservas at this stage. It offers fine depth, plenty of tannin and nascent emerging inner sweetness to tie it all together. A wine of stature and textural depth, the Montestefano is my early favorite in this lineup.
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Wine Spectator
Evocative and aromatic, this red features cherry, rose, white pepper, eucalyptus, iron and tobacco flavors. Firmly built, with dense tannins and a savory finish, this is balanced but needs time.
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James Suckling
Restrained if not dull at first. Very minerally nose with peach peel, orange zest, sweet violets and vermouth-like complexity, Firm tannins, a medium body, crisp acidity and an extracted yet classic 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.