Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby red in color with an intense nose of red fruit and tertiary notes of oak and vanilla. Round and compact on the palate with splendid, intense fruit and rounded tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Mix of very ripe brambleberries here, yet this retains a fresh touch both on the nose and palate. Medium-to full-bodied with fresh fruit and very tight, fine-grained tannins that pucker the mouth by the end. This needs considerable time in the cellar. Try from 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Virna started producing this commune-wide Barolo years before many of its peers. The 2017 Barolo del Comune del Barolo is spicy and fruity and ultimately strikes a terrific balance somewhere in between those two points. The wine boasts a very bright and lifted bouquet that is given energy, thanks to its aromas of wild cherry, crushed rose, white stone and anise. To the palate, the wine delivers tight structure and a long staying power. This is a nicely buttoned-up Barolo with 5,000 bottles to be released in the fall.
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.