Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Intense and floral Barolo with fresh roses, Parma violets, strawberries and dried cherries, as well as licorice and minty depth. Smooth attack on the palate, which shows full body, crisp acidity and velvety, refined tannins that are extracted and powerful yet coated by fruit. Long, licorice finish with a whiff of citrus. Try after 2026.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Barolo Riserva Bricco Delle Viole is a saturated ruby hue and is more perfumed and red-fruited in its feel, with notes of raspberry liqueur, pressed roses, sweet sage, and mossy earth. The palate has a more elegant and linear feel, with a ripe, medium-bodied frame, ripe tannins, ripe acidity, and a clean, tapering finish. It’s a very pretty Riserva that, like the San Pietro, has a more refreshing feel and should drink well now or over the coming 10-12 years.
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Wine Spectator
Leafy underbrush, white pepper, iron and tar flavors embrace a core of rose, cherry and raspberry in this fruit-driven red. Bracing acidity and a line of tightly coiled tannins extend the resonant aftertaste. Best from 2028 through 2045. 300 cases made, 100 cases imported.
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.