Winemaker Notes
#2 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 of 2017
Ruby red color. Aromas of red fruit. On the palate are elegant and complex flavors 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
-
Wine Enthusiast
Combining finesse and structure, this impressive wine opens with alluring aromas of mature berry, pressed rose, aromatic herb, star anise, new leather and a balsamic note. The palate shows depth and tension, offering raspberry compote, Marasca cherry, licorice, clove and pipe tobacco alongside taut refined tannins. Hold for even more complexity. Drink 2019–2031.
Editors' Choice -
Wine & Spirits
Our panels recommended seven of Produttori’s single crus from 2011, with Rabajà the star of the lineup for its thrilling combination of elegance and verve. Suave tannins and cool minerality guide the wine’s fruit and spice flavors seamlessly in an upward trajectory, revealing layers of anise and savory smoke as the wine builds toward a long and vibrant finish. Its silky texture and expressive flavors are hard to resist now, but a few years of cellaring promises even more complexity.
-
Wine Spectator
A juicy, cherry-, menthol- and tar-flavored red, with a linear profile and fine tension. Floral and mineral elements enter the fray as this builds to a long finish. Best from 2019 through 2033.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Barbaresco Riserva Rabajà is a beautiful wine that hits all the right buttons. This wine opens to evident ripeness, but that abundant dark fruit is well contained within the larger framework of this wine. The Rabajà cru delivers dense and well-structured Nebbiolo grapes with firm tannins and broad, muscular appeal. This Riserva opens nicely in the glass and offers a generous stream of dark fruit and spice flavors. This wine is poised to shed some of that baby fat with time.
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.