La Spinona Sori Gepin Barolo 2015
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James
Suckling
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Barolo, produced with Nebbiolo grapes from the single vineyard in the town of Novello, is balanced and structured. The color is ruby red and tends to an intense garnet red with ageing. The bouquet is complex and combines freshness with elegance and finesse. A flavor with strong tannins but well-balanced and lingering. The grapes are harvested from the upper part of the vineyard.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is very tight and focused with dried-strawberry, rust, conifer and burnt-orange aromas and flavors. It’s full-bodied, tight and powerful with solid tannins that turn round and attractive. Drink in 2023 and onwards.
Other Vintages
2016-
Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling
Barbaresco wine is a family affair at La Spinona. From the grandfather Pietro, to his son Gualtiero and then his grandson Pietropaolo: for decades, the Berutti family have believed in the land on the hills of the municipality of Barbaresco, a place dedicated to the production of great wines.
La Spinona is a company that represents its founder Pietro Berutti, a man of great experience who believed in Barbaresco since the 1940s. Pietro’s son Gualtiero, an experienced veterinary surgeon, brought his expertise not only to the breeding of Piemontese cattle, but also to the cultivation of the vineyards and selection of the best products, while respecting the environment. This is a responsibility he continues to bear, confident that his commitment is shared by his son Pietropaolo, a wine-making technician and head of production in the winery, together with the marketing side.
La Spinona, a name associated with the land, originates from part of the family’s life history: the still-vivid memory of their dog, Baica, a Spinone Italiano. She was a friend and “sister”, who accompanied Pietro for years along the path that led to the development of the winery in the late 1940s. Baica is a symbol that still has pride of place on the company logo and, throughout the world, represents the history of a winery that makes high-quality wine through meticulous work and attention to nature, to obtain wines that are clean, elegant and traditional.
The results can be seen in abundance: the Barbaresco, Barolo, Langhe Nebbiolo, Barbera d’Alba, Dolcetto d’Alba and Langhe Chardonnay are all appreciated in the major markets, including the US, Japan and Canada
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.