Winemaker Notes
Broglio is Schiavenza's largest cru holding, with 1.5ha owned here. The vineyard is located at 360 meters above sea level with a south-east exposure. Due to a bit more clay in the topsoil, Broglio is also the most productive site in the Schiavenza range. To achieve balance and to let the Serralunga terroir speak clearly, this vineyard requires more labor than their other sites, with multiple passes of canopy work, bunch-thinning, and green harvest. Of the four Barolos, Broglio can often be the one that is most aromatically and structurally "ready" at a young age, perhaps even more so than the estate's Serralunga bottling.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very perfumed with pretty, sweet fruit and roses on the nose, following through to a medium to full body with tight, polished tannins and a long, flavorful finish. Shows finesse and balance. Hints of tar in the aftertaste. Drink in 2024 and onwards.
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Wine Enthusiast
Tobacco, blue flower, sunbaked earth and leather aromas form the nose along with a whiff of dried mint. Showing the heat of the vintage, the palate is already rather evolved, offering dried cherry, grilled porcini mushroom and licorice alongside taut, close-grained tannins. You'll also notice the warmth of alcohol on the close. Despite the firm tannins, drink sooner rather than later to capture the remaining fruit richness.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The first of the three crus along the eastern ridge of the Serralunga commune, the Broglio parcel sits at 360 meters of elevation with southeastern exposure. The 2017 Barolo Broglio is full and savory with sage, ripe plum, and black truffle. Generous and full of dried cherry, dried orange peel, and clove, there is classic Serralunga structure while maintaining a relatively approachable character. 2024-2038.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A release of 6,700 bottles, the Schiavenza 2017 Barolo Broglio offers a robust aromatic and flavor profile that is driven not only by the ripeness of the vintage fruit but also by the oak rendering and extra spice. The wine shows a moment of softness or sweetness with cherry, dried raspberry and crème de cassis. Delicate notes of spice and tar also appear. The wine is soft and yielding in terms of structure and texture.
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Wine Spectator
Plenty of sweet plum and cherry fruit highlights this fleshy red. Round and juicy, with accents of eucalyptus, earth, tobacco and mineral. Firm tannins line the lengthy 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.
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.