M. Marengo Barolo Bricco delle Viole 2013
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Robert
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James
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Great with grilled red meat or seasoned cheeses.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Barolo Bricco delle Viole is a delicious expression from a lesser-known vineyard that is declared by only three producers including Marco Marengo. This estate produces 5,500 bottles from one hectare of vines. Like Marco's other Barolo wines, this one is fermented with ambient yeasts and undergoes malolactic fermentation in small oak barrel. The wine is aged in new (only 20%) and neutral oak for two years before release. This expression shows excellent depth and generosity with lively fruit flavors that wrap thickly over the palate. This is a complete and centered expression that makes a loud and positive impact, but ultimately follows through with extreme elegance and grace.
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James Suckling
Beautiful perfumes of roses, berries and hot stones. Full body, silky tannins and plenty of fruit and spices on the finish — yet this is always understated. Needs three or four years to open. Try in 2021.
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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.