Winemaker Notes
With a ruby-red color, the Barolo has a rich bouquet which gradually recalls the scents of roses flows, truffles and wood spice. The palate is at first elegant and refined, then is begins to gain in complexity with air. The long flavors predict a prominent future ahead.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
So beautifully perfumed and complex with plums, cedar and dried flowers. Full body, round and chewy tannins with intensity and richness. Needs at least two or three years to come together.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Access to Cannubi fruit is almost impossible these days, as prices have gone through the roof. Coming from vines planted in the 1970s, the Virna 2016 Barolo Cannubi is accessible and almost approachable in terms of its pricing. It pours forth with a dark garnet color and highlighted flashes of brick red. Like the other wines from this producer, this expression is open-knit and balanced, with soft, pliant fruit that is stacked tall in thick layers. Dark cherry, prune, spice and tar all converge in unity here, building in intensity along the way.
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.