Winemaker Notes
Barolo Bussia is an intense ruby red color, lively and bright. Complex on the nose with rich notes of red fruit and floral aromas, accentuated by notes of roses, wildflowers, spices, and forest floor. The palate is intense with supple, silky tannins. The finish is long and harmonious.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Flowers and dried strawberries with hints of sandalwood and rosewood. Plenty of flowers. Medium body. Very fine and firm tannins. Crunchy and bright.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Here is another historic wine from Prunotto, only this time it comes from one of the most recognized crus in Barolo. It represents an ample production of 25,000 bottles per year. The 2019 Barolo Bussia has an interesting bouquet with clear tones of blue flower, fruit and rusty mineral. These are the basic building blocks of Nebbiolo, and this wine presents them as distinct elements. A few more years of bottle age will help this wine reach better integration. Like most of these wines from Prunotto, the Bussia shows an easygoing personality for near and medium-term drinking.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of raspberry liquor, strawberry and rhubarb, cinnamon sticks and dried rose waft from the glass. The broad palate is lush with ripe red fruits supported by savory spice, minerality and superfine tannins.
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Wine Spectator
Rich, with plum and cherry fruit, this red also reveals licorice, eucalyptus, tar and leather flavors. Broad and balanced, with the initial suppleness offset by a light stubble of tannins. Shows fine, salty length. Best from 2026 through 2042.
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.