Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Red berries and peach peel with citrusy freshness and hints of sandalwood and licorice. It’s firm and structured with chewy tannins. Medium-bodied. It’s polished and textured with a lingering aftertaste.
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Wine Enthusiast
Pretty and rounded, this Barolo offers a delightful aromas reminiscent of mixed berry jam and preserves with a touch of medicinal notes. Classically formed on the palate with a core of cherry, wild herbs and hint of roasted black tea, the tannins make their presence known on the palate with a chalky texture. This wine begs for a juicy grilled ribeye steak or porcini mushrooms.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is my favorite wine in this group from Schiavenza. The 2020 Barolo Cerretta (with a 15% alcohol content) has dried fruit and baked plum that gives the wine an aged profile. These results are firm and muscular with a powerful approach to the mouthfeel. This wine has some of the metallic or ferrous qualities that I often associate with Serralunga d'Alba.
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Wine Spectator
Rich and packed with tightly wound tannins, this red offers cherry, tamarind, tar and eucalyptus flavors. This is more about the savory character and structure, with a chewy finish, yet there's ample fruit. Best from 2028 through 2045
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.