Tenuta L'Illuminata Tebavio Barolo 2004
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Tebavio Barolo from La Morra opens with a pretty garnet color and segues to bold aromas of sweet spice, clove, ground ginger, road tar, licorice and black fruit. It's a linear and dry wine with a brooding personality and tannins as tight as nails. It doesn't have huge volume in the mouth, nor does it need it.
Tenuta L’Illuminata is the first wine estates of Guido Folonari, heir to a historic Italian wine family. Located on the beautiful hills of La Morra in the Langhe hills, Tenuta L’Illuminata has a total area of approximately 11 hectares. Thanks to the privileged vineyards, located at an altitude of 250 meters above sea level, and the passion and professionalism of the team, the resulting wines boast greatest elegance, authenticity and drinking pleasantness.
“In our days, excellence is almost taken for granted. Yet the difference can be made on the service that one relates to the product, on the particular focus and attention paid to the consumer, wherever he might be.” Guido Folonari’s route began ten years ago with the development of a wine project between Piedmont and Tuscany, the most prestigious production areas in Italy. A philosophy based on excellence, on product quality, on the constant search for self-improvement, and on products typical to an identifiable territory. Well aware that the earth has its own needs and pace …... that have to be respected.
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.