2016 Barbaresco Rio Sordo Riserva
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
The 2016 Barbaresco Riserva Rio Sordo is a charming and more fruit-forward wine with a fresh and lush texture. Drinking well now, it offers a silky texture with sweet tannins and is flush with kirsch, raspberry liqueur, and blood orange. For all of its joyful charm, it still retains fresh tension that is going to have lots of life ahead of it. Drink 2023-2043. As one of the most important and quality-minded co-operatives in the world, Produttori del Barbaresco is currently composed of 51 growers across Barbaresco. Founded in 1894 by Domizio Cavazza, the headmaster of the Royal Enological School of Alba, it was originally a collection of nine growers. Today the operations are managed by Aldo Vacca, who was formerly the assistant to Angelo Gaja for 15 years.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Barbaresco Riserva Rio Sordo takes it up a notch if you consider the tasting of each one of these single-vineyard wines tasted in order. With the Rio Sordo, you really start to feel the textural richness and fruit weight that can be achieved with Nebbiolo in a great vintage. This vintage is compact and tightly woven together, suggesting a forecast for an extra long drinking window. The Alutto and Marengo families farm the fruit used in this blend. This wine will live long, and I love that touch of candied licorice that appears on the close (especially when you come back to the open bottle 24 hours later). Production is 11,355 bottles.
The 2016 Barbaresco Riserva Rio Sordo is a serious, somber wine. Black cherry, plum, lavender, spice and menthol show off the darker side of Nebbiolo to great effect. In most vintages, Rio Sordo is an easygoing wine, but not in 2016. Readers will find a potent, brooding yet mid-weight Barbaresco that screams with character. What a way to start this tasting!
About the producer
Produttori del Barbaresco is one of the world’s finest wine cooperatives, famed for crafting beautiful wines at very reasonable prices. With a heritage dating back over five decades, it rivals Piedmont’s top estates and is celebrated for producing truly magnificent Nebbiolo.