1995 Barbaresco Santo Stefanetto
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Tasting notes
One of the real surprises of the evening, the 1995 Barbaresco Santo Stefano is fabulous. A classic bouquet of sweet rose petal, mint, hard candy and red cherry is super-alluring. Time in the glass allows the wine to gain in breadth and textural expansiveness, but the wine’s knock-out aromatics steal the show. I have had a number of terrific 1995s over the past year, including Giacosa’s Barbaresco Santo Stefano, which is a jewel of a wine. The 1995 is not huge or imposing, but its balance is beyond reproach.
Critic scores
Robert Parker
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
One of the ironies when tasting Giacosa's wines is that he does not own any vines in the Santo Stefano vineyard, yet he consistently produces the finest wine from this hillside parcel. The 1995 Barbaresco Santo Stefano reveals an intensely fragrant nose of coffee, soy, tobacco, dried herbs, and cherry cough syrup. Full-bodied, with moderate tannin in the finish, this is an expressive, rich, expansively flavored Barbaresco that can be drunk now as well as over the next 12-15 years. A Leonardo Lo Cascio Selection, Winebow, Hohokus, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620
One of the ironies when tasting Giacosa's wines is that he does not own any vines in the Santo Stefano vineyard, yet he consistently produces the finest wine from this hillside parcel. The 1995 Barbaresco Santo Stefano reveals an intensely fragrant nose of coffee, soy, tobacco, dried herbs, and cherry cough syrup. Full-bodied, with moderate tannin in the finish, this is an expressive, rich, expansively flavored Barbaresco that can be drunk now as well as over the next 12-15 years.||A Leonardo Lo Cascio Selection, Winebow, Hohokus, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620|| Wine Advocate.August, 1999
Good medium red. Lovely aromatic nose combines redcurrant, underbrush, dried flowers, tobacco and woodsmoke; essence of Barbaresco perfume. Silky and expressive, with less sheer sweetness than the '96 Santo Stefano but very good structure, particularly considering that this wine features a high percentage of the rose clone. Lovely developing flavors suggest that this wine will begin to drink well with another two or three years of bottle aging. Finishes with dusty, slightly hard tannins.
About the producer
Bruno Giacosa – now run by daughter Bruna – is a cult Nebbiolo producer, that has consistently made some of the best single-vineyard Barbaresco and Barolo from the 1960s onwards. The“red-label” Riservas are some of the finest and most collectable wines in Italy.