Winemaker Notes
Ratti’s ‘Marcenasco’ Barolo is the flagship wine of the estate, a classic expression the La Morra commune.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This Barolo is defined by its purity of tart red fruits that interplay with more delicate aromas of dried flowers and savory spices. The palate is sturdy and structured with a solid core of ripe cherries mixed with dried tea leaves finishing with vibrant acidity. Maze Row Wine Merchant.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Barolo Marcenasco is spiced and fragrant with cinnamon, fresh leather, red cherry, and clove. It is expressive through the palate, with wild berries, cedar, forest floor, and a well-balanced, ripe structure. Best After 2025.
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James Suckling
This is very refined and integrated with lots of chewy tannins but they are melted into the wine. Flowers, strawberry and dried orange character. Some candied strawberry and watermelon, too. It lacks a tiny amount in the center palate, but still all there.
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Wine Spectator
A firm, elegant red marked by haunting aromas of rose, cherry and spices. Supple and beautifully balanced, with strawberry and cherry flavors shaded by underbrush and white pepper. Shows fine length, with a hint of licorice.
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.