Oddero Oddero Barolo Brunate 2021 750ml

The Oddero 2020 Barolo Brunate definitely shows the austerity and power of this celebrated MGA site in La Morra. There's a strong mineral element with ferrous earth or rusty nail. The fruit is dark and spicy with baked currant or spiced plum. This is a solid and compact Barolo with a big, fleshy style. Its tannic firmness and freshness give it runway to age. A mere 1,700 bottles were produced.

Pouring a deeper, saturated ruby red color, the 2021 Barolo Brunate is a bit more reserved but seductive on the nose with aromas of fresh leather, black raspberries, balsamic herbs, and mossy earth. The palate also takes on more sapidity, with a more balanced, rounded feel, plush, ripe tannins, even acidity, and a long finish closing with hints of black truffle. It’s a more brooding wine that’s going to improve over the coming 15-20 years.

What a delight it is to taste Oddero’s 2018 Barolo Brunate. A glorious wine, the Oddero Brunate is one of the very few wines in this vintage that possesses real mid-palate depth and notable textural intensity. It is the smallest production wine here. I imagine that the slightly smaller cask used for this wine was an advantage in giving the 2018 a bit of extra flesh that is missing in this vintage. What impresses me most about the 2018, though, is its freshness and the primary intensity of the fruit. Iron, smoke, tobacco, dried herbs, chalk and a whole range of savory accents develop over time, rounding things out in style. What a wine! (Antonio Galloni)

Pouring a jeweled ruby, the 2018 Barolo Brunate needs some air on opening before revealing significant depth and balance for this cooler and wet vintage, with notes of balsamic herbs, black raspberry, and mineral earth. Medium-bodied, with fine tannins, pure red cherry fruit fills the palate, and the wine has a long floral finish with rose petals and a stony texture. It is deserving of at least another year in the cellar. Drink 2024–2040. (Audrey Frick)

Always a standout wine, the Oddero 2018 Barolo Brunate is a complete wine, and I use that word specifically because it shows balance, freshness, length and structure. It has all the basics of an age-worthy Nebbiolo that promises to increase in complexity and depth with more cellar age. At this young stage, the bouquet is singing with dark fruit, cherry, spice and sweet earth. (Monica Larner)

A blend of fruit from three MGA sites (Bricco Chiesa, Capalot and Fiasco), the Oddero 2021 Barolo reveals cassis and dried cherry, but it also shows extra spice and smoke at the back. You get mineral nuances over a well-structured and firm Nebbiolo. This wine requires a little extra time before it fully opens. Once it does, it offers a beautiful mouthfeel with zesty freshness, minerality and lots of energy. It undergoes a spontaneous fermentation in stainless steel, and the wine ages in botte grande for 24 months. Production is 48,000 bottles, and the wine is priced competitively.

This Barolo is a portrait of elegance and finesse. The nose is lifted and fresh, with a delicate bouquet of pretty floral notes that dance above the glass with ripe cherries sitting at the center. As the wine opens up, it reveals a firm and classic structure, with well-defined tannins that have been masterfully chiseled to provide a solid backbone. The palate is a harmonious balance of grace and power, with the wine's elegant aromatics and precise structure working in perfect unity. Drink 2026 - 2045

Very floral, this Barolo shows aromas of rose petals with wild-strawberry and cedar undertones. Medium-bodied, sleek and elegant with precise, enveloping tannins that will require a couple of years to mellow. Very promising, this will benefit from at least 3 years of bottle age. Best from 2028.

A fragrant, delicate red, whose cinnamon, floral and strawberry aromas give way to flavors of strawberry, cherry, iron and wild herbs. Sleek, harmonious and vibrant, this builds to the long finish, where the fruit and savory notes mingle. Best from 2028 through 2047. 167 cases made.

Camphor, violet, oak-driven spice and woodland berry aromas shape the nose. Lithe and polished, the full-bodied palate offers ripe Morello cherry, coconut, vanilla and star anise set against fine-grained tannins that leave a drying close. (Kerin O’Keefe)

A solidly built red, evoking cherry, cranberry, blood orange, earth and underbrush flavors. Its tannins are thick, yet there's plenty of fruit, and this finds its equilibrium and a sense of gracefulness in the end. Best from 2028 through 2043. 300 cases made.

Cherry and raspberry fruit mingles with tar, eucalyptus and mineral notes in this balanced yet solidly built red. There’s ample flesh to match the sinewy tannins, while the fruit peeks through again in the end. Best from 2029 through 2047.

A pure, elegant style, this red reveals cherry, strawberry, rose, iron and tobacco aromas and flavors allied to a graceful frame. Firms up on the finish yet remains juicy and long. Best from 2024 through 2035. 150 cases made. (Bruce Sanderson)