Winemaker Notes
Barolo Bussia is a lustrous, vibrant ruby red color with garnet reflections. Its nose is complex with floral scents and notes of red fruit. An intense palate with sweet, silky tannins leads to a lengthy harmonious finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Woodland berry, rose, camphor and a whiff of tobacco shape the fragrant nose. It's focused and elegantly structured, presenting juicy Marasca cherry, orange zest, licorice and clove set against bright acidity and taut, refined tannins. Best after 2024. Cellar Selection
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James Suckling
Really extracted aromas of ripe strawberries with some cedar and tea undertones, following through to a medium body with round, creamy tannins and a wonderful finish of ripe strawberries and citrus peel, as well as a hint of honey. Subtle and refined. Better after 2022.
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Wine Spectator
Bright with cherry, berry, mint, leather and tar aromas and flavors, this red possesses a matching structure for balance and poise. Well put together at this young stage, its harmony and length bodes well for the future. Best from 2022 through 2040.
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Wine & Spirits
A touch of spice accents this wine’s cherry and strawberry flavors, those red fruit tones gaining flesh and verve as the wine takes on notes of mint and fresh tobacco. Juicy and mouthwatering, with a refined texture, this will only get better over the next several years.
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.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo wine region includes five core townships: La Morra, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and the Barolo village itself, as well as a few outlying villages. The landscape of Barolo, characterized by prominent and castle-topped hills, is full of history and romance centered on the Nebbiolo grape. Its wines, with the signature “tar and roses” aromas, have a deceptively light garnet color but full presence on the palate and plenty of tannins and acidity. In a well-made Barolo wine, one can expect to find complexity and good evolution with notes of, for example, strawberry, cherry, plum, leather, truffle, anise, fresh and dried herbs, tobacco and violets.
There are two predominant soil types here, which distinguish Barolo from the lesser surrounding areas. Compact and fertile Tortonian sandy marls define the vineyards farthest west and at higher elevations. Typically the Barolo wines coming from this side, from La Morra and Barolo, can be approachable relatively early on in their evolution and represent the “feminine” side of Barolo, often closer in style to Barbaresco with elegant perfume and fresh fruit.
On the eastern side of the Barolo wine region, Helvetian soils of compressed sandstone and chalks are less fertile, producing wines with intense body, power and structured tannins. This more “masculine” style comes from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba. The township of Castiglione Falletto covers a spine with both soil types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.