Winemaker Notes
Historical vineyard in Castiglione Falletto, above the Pira geographical mention, next to Roagna's winery. The surface area is 0.48 ha, and the soil is calcareous clay, rich in white rock and sand. The plantation dates back to the 1960s and 70s and contains wood derived from ancient massal selections.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2020 Barolo Rocche di Castiglione is one of the highlights of this range from Luca Roagna. It is also a wine that needed 12+ hours to open. The wine's aromatics and inner perfume are total seduction. That's Rocche di Castiglione. Bright and focused on the palate with striking red-toned fruit, the 2020 Rocche is utterly mesmerizing. It is a Barolo that satisfies the hedonistic and intellectual senses. Readers who can find the 2020 should not hesitate, as it is a deeply moving, utterly profound wine of the highest level.
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James Suckling
A restrained wine with a subtle nose of minerals, wild strawberries, fresh violets, rhubarb, cherry stones and graphite. Full-bodied, firm and velvety, with ripe tannins and blood orange flavors. Long, minerally finish.
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Wine Spectator
A solid, consistent red, whose tart cherry, strawberry, rose hip and mineral flavors are allied to a viscous texture midpalate. This is never heavy, however, and ends with finesse and terrific length. So balanced and appealing that you may want to pop the cork now, yet this will improve with time.
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.