Winemaker Notes
#24 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2020
Ruby red color. The bouquet shows red fruit notes. On the palate it is elegant and complex with silky tannins and dark fruit on the 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
The Produttori del Barbaresco 2015 Barbaresco Riserva Rabajà is a stunning wine. The aromas rise from the glass with purpose, clarity and extreme definition. This is indeed a very special wine, thanks to the direct and linear quality of fruit and the elegant tannins that build the long finish. The Nebbiolo grape is elevated to a beautiful plain or plateau, where it shows off its naked beauty in a clear and unobstructed manner. The wine affords us a panoramic view of the Piedmont grape, planted in the white tuffaceous marl soils of Rabajà.
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Wine Spectator
Though rich, this red offers bright acidity and dense tannins that lend a sense of tightness, with pure cherry, strawberry and floral flavors that are persistent from start to lingering finish, where distinct spice and mineral elements play out. Best from 2023 through 2045.
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Decanter
Rabajà has a complex mix of soils and at its northern edges joins the vineyards of Asili and Muncagota. This was first bottled by Produttori as a single-vineyard wine in 1971. The 2015 is darker and richer than all here other than perhaps the Asili and Rio Sordo. It has an intense meaty, inky character framed by wood and with an overlay of vanilla. It combines power and density with elegant tannins and high acidity.
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Wine Enthusiast
Wild berry, violet, face powder and eucalyptus aromas lift out of the glass. On the youthfully austere, structured palate, tightly knit but noble tannins wrap around black cherry, raspberry, licorice and crushed mint. Give this a few more years to fully develop. Drink 2025–2035.
Cellar Selection
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.