Winemaker Notes
Ruby red color. Ripe, broad red fruit with an earthy character. Full-bodied and intense on the palate with rich tannins and a long finish.
Pairs well with fresh egg pastas, risottos, white meats, red meats, venison and cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Barbaresco Riserva Poracome from a cru that lies closer to the Tanaro River, with more fertile soils, which lends it the slightly more open and easygoing feel that’s typical of this site. It sports a youthful red color in the glass and opens to notes of preserved cranberry, mossy forest floor, dried spice, and pressed flowers. Medium-bodied, it floats on the palate with a medium frame, fine tannins, and a weightless feel. It’s more open and approachable at this stage but will drink well over the coming 12-15 years.
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Wine Spectator
Balsamic flavors of eucalyptus and menthol introduce this fluid, cherry- and blackberry-flavored red. Turns more fruity with air, offering a fleshy texture and accents of earth, tar and licorice on the lingering finish. Shows fine balance, with adequate tannins to develop over the short to medium term. Best from 2026 through 2040.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is the first wine served in a flight of nine that increase in intensity and power moving forward. The Produttori del Barbaresco 2020 Barbaresco Riserva Pora opens to a medium-light color with garnet highlights. Aromas include wild cherry, cassis and blue flower. You also get hints of crushed limestone. The Pora vineyard is near the Tanaro River Valley, where warm air accumulates, and the vines are planted in fertile soils. The extra heat and humidity of the area makes for accessible wines that are ready to drink and are less complex overall.
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Vinous
The 2020 Barbaresco Riserva Pora is aromatic, effusive and quite charming. Crushed flowers, spice, leather, tobacco and cedar lend notable inner sweetness. Medium in body and gracious, the Pora is pretty approachable today, although it will be better with a few years in bottle. This is a very beautiful, vivid Pora and a fine introduction to the Riservas.
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.