Wine Advisor
Giacomo Fenocchio, Barolo Cannubi 2018
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: James Suckling
Spicy red fruit and mushrooms on the nose, together with bright cedar and truffle-like notes. Medium-bodied palate with a tight core of nebbiolo fruit and some firm, grainy tannin. Very compact now. Lighter body this year, yet it’s quite complex and well polished. Give it until at least 2024.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2018 Barolo Cannubi offers up sweet dried cherry, incense, tobacco, blood orange, rosewater, cinnamon and crushed savory herbs. There is a feeling of transparency in the 2018 that is absolutely beguiling. I would give the tannins a few years to soften. This is very nicely done. The purity of the flavors is striking.
About the Producer
Five generations of Fenocchios have been producing wine from their holdings in Monforte d’Alba since 1894. Most of the production was sold locally up until 1964, when the ambitious and energetic Giacomo Fenocchio took over the estate. In his quest to make the finest wines in all of Barolo, he purchased prime parcels in Cannubi and nearby Castellero, but his focus was always on what he liked to call the heart of the Barolo area, the Bussia. In April of 1989, Giacomo passed away, leaving his young son Claudio to take over all farming and winemaking duties for the estate. As Claudio explains it, it was a challenging time for Barolo. Many producers were pushing a “new way” to make Barolo, and having great commercial success; but Claudio never strayed from the path of tradition. He continued producing his wines with the time honored techniques of the classic style: organic farming, with long fermentations on the skins and aging only in large Slavonian oak casks. Today Claudio’s wines exhibit a level of terroir clarity that is only found in the top echelon of producers. If you’re looking for the next star winemaker in Italy, look no further. In October of 2014, The New York Times rated Fenocchio in second position in a tasting of 2010 Barolos – coming behind only Elio Altare and ahead of Elio Grasso, Massolino, and Vietti. Claudio now manages 14 hectares of vineyards in Barolo, Castiglione Falletto and of course, the Bussia of Monforte. Total average annual production is about 8,000 cases.
