Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Walnuts, cherry stones, strawberries and tobacco on the nose. It’s full-bodied and well framed, with fine, lightly chalky tannins. Lots of finesse and length. Drink after 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This wine sources its fruit exclusively from a five-hectare site with local Tortoniano soils that are rich in magnesium and manganese with a bluish hue. The Prunotto 2021 Barbaresco Bric Turot (with 26,000 bottles made) shows an expressive savory side that to my tastes translates as more roots than flowers. Dark fruit is followed by tilled earth, petrichor and toasted almond husk. This is a keeper, but for near and medium-term drinking, I would go with the village Barbaresco.
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Vinous
The 2021 Barbaresco Bric Turot offers all the classicism of Treiso in its deeply-pitched, spiced personality and structural feel. Dark red-toned fruit, cloves, leather, orange peel and saddle leather give the 2021 lovely exotic elements that add to its beguiling personality. Clean mineral notes extend the finish.
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.