Oddero has been farming Nebbiolo on the hills of La Morra and Barolo for a very long time, and this Riserva comes off one of the finest sites in the Bussia zone, a single vineyard called Vigna Mondoca. 2012 was a vintage that rewarded patience: a cool, late season that gave Nebbiolo a long, slow ripening and wines with real perfume and grip.
- Nebbiolo, the only grape allowed in Barolo.
- Barolo DOCG, Piedmont, northern Italy.
- Bussia, a hillside long prized in Monforte d'Alba.
- 2012, a late and elegant vintage in the Langhe.
- Riserva, aged longer in the cellar before release.
How it is made
Barolo DOCG carries some of the strictest rules in Italy. It must be Nebbiolo and nothing else, grown on the hills around the villages of the Langhe, and it must spend a minimum of three years ageing before it can be sold, two of them in wood. A Riserva adds a further year on top of that. It is a rule written for a grape that arrives late, with high acid and hard tannin, and needs time before it makes sense.
How it tastes
Rose petal and tar, the two things tasters always come back to with Nebbiolo, are both here. So is red cherry, dried herbs and a balsamic edge that comes from long ageing. The tannins are firm and the acidity is high, which is what gives Barolo its shape and its length. Full-bodied, dry, and still carrying plenty of structure at this age.
Where it comes from
Bussia sits in Monforte d'Alba, one of the eleven villages of the Barolo zone, and it is one of the larger and more varied of the great hills. Vigna Mondoca is a single parcel within it. Nebbiolo grown here tends toward perfume and firmness rather than sheer weight, and the wines are known for taking a long time to open up.
Good to know
Nebbiolo is one of the few red grapes that is genuinely pale in the glass, often closer to a light ruby or even garnet than the deep colour the tannin would suggest. The colour comes from the grape's thin skins, and the structure comes from everything else. Barolo has been called the wine of kings since the House of Savoy took it up in the 1800s, and the name of the grape itself is usually traced to nebbia, the fog that settles on the Langhe hills at harvest.
