Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with egg pastas, risottos, red meats and cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Flavors of cherry and red berries burst through this wine’s powerful tannins, exuding energy and freshness. The fruit remains vibrant as the wine picks up darker notes of dried porcini and anise, accented by hints of crunchy herbs. Aldo Vacca, Produttori’s director, calls Ovello “The Tomboy” for its youthful exuberance and powerful structure gained from the vineyard’s cool exposition and clay-rich soils.
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James Suckling
Gorgeous aromas of plums, spices and leather. Cedar undertones. Medium to full body, firm and silky tannins and a beautifully balanced finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Perfumed with violet, fragrant ripe berry, leather, dark spice and a balsamic note, this is a textbook Nebbiolo. The elegant palate offers Morello cherry, cranberry, white pepper and star anise while firm but ultrarefined tannins provide support. It's already delicious but has the structure to cellar for several years or more.
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Wine Spectator
A peppery, spicy style, this displays cherry, eucalyptus, tar and black pepper aromas and flavors. Firmly tannic, yet with a core of concentrated sweet fruit, tobacco and tea accents on the lingering finish. Best from 2019 through 2033. 1,380 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This vineyard site seems to have absorbed much of the summer heat. The 2011 Barbaresco Riserva Ovello is a round and ripe wine with dark fruit, black cherry and black current. The Ovello vineyard expression is normally one of the lightest and more elegant wines in this Riserva series, but this is not the case in this vintage. There's more brawn and muscle than I remember in the past. In contrast, however, the mouthfeel is more streamlined and delineated than expected.
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.