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
-
Wine Enthusiast
Underbrush, wild herb and dark-skinned-berry aromas form the nose along with a whiff of camphor. On the firm, structured palate, tightly knit but noble tannins offset dried Marasca cherry, cranberry, orange zest and star anise. Tense and youthfully austere, it needs a few years to unwind. Drink 2022–2027.
-
Decanter
Pora is one of Barbaresco's largest vineyards, situated on a southwest-facing slope close to the river where the soils are relatively fertile and loose. Produttori has made a wine from Pora since 1967, and today around 16,500 bottles are produced in vintages when it's made. This 2015 still has a pronounced woody aroma, and while it's mouthilling it manages to retain some elegance. It's obviously youthful: the vanilla- and spice-infused wood flavours dominate and hold your attention, the fruit unable as of yet to punch through. It does have plenty of promise, however, and you could expect the succulent and ripe fruits to hold more sway over the next decade as the wood integrates.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Following the suggestion of Produttori del Barbaresco General Manager Renato Vacca, I am starting off this series of nine Riservas with the 2015 Barbaresco Riserva Pora. This wine is usually the most delicate, slender and ephemeral of this set. However, I can immediately confirm that this is not necessarily the case with this exuberant 2015 vintage. The sunny heat of the growing season has successfully drawn out more fruit weight and intensity in this edition of Pora. The wine overdelivers in terms of aromas, but its streamlined and polished personality follows through to the palate. Those divergent intensity levels will smooth out with more bottle age.
-
Wine Spectator
A mix of black cherry, mint, eucalyptus and tar flavors highlight this firmly structured Barbaresco, which nonetheless remains fresh and focused, with a line of dense tannins lifting the long finish. Best from 2023 through 2043.
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.