Winemaker Notes
Garnet red color with a bouquet of licorice and tobacco. Noble and generous, glory of old Piedmont, this wine is suitable for aging. It conquers the palate with the conviction of strength, harmony and fullness and holds its sway at length. Barolo Marcenasco is smooth, balanced, elegant and faithfully, best to drink between 6 to 12 years after the vintage.
Pair this wine with red meats on the spit or grilled, game, "grande cuisine", white and red meat dishes and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Wild berry, crushed herb, violet and baking spice scents lift out of the glass along with a whiff of menthol. Focused and elegantly structured, the delicious palate doles out ripe Marasca cherry, raspberry compote, cinnamon, sage and white pepper, while refined tannins and bright acidity provide supple support and impeccable balance. Drink 2023–2033.
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James Suckling
A Barolo with a solid core of ripe fruit and velvety tannins that are muscular and powerful. Medium-to full-bodied, structured and chewy. Needs two or three years to soften.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Barolo Marcenasco is Renato Ratti's flagship wine that was first produced in 1965. The Marcenasco cru in La Morra has responded well to this slightly cooler vintage. The wine shows a great deal of sharpness and precision. Beautiful cherry fruit segues to spice, tar and rose petal. Judging by the nose alone, this Barolo almost appears ready to drink now. Once you taste it, however, the youth of the tannins and the brightness of the primary fruit firmly suggest that more bottle aging will do the wine wonders.
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.