Marrone
Barolo – 2021
Region: italy - piedmont
Marrone
The origins of Agricola Marrone date back over a century and through four generations. The family is focused on cultivating local grape varietals with a passionate dedication to the land.
When Pietro Marrone was born in 1887, his father Edoardo was already producing wines. In 1910, at 23 years old, he asked his father to plant some vineyards. In the early 1920s/30s the winery began cultivating vineyards using techniques that were revolutionary at the time: reducing production yields to prioritize higher quality and avoiding sowing wheat between vine rows, a standard practice at the time. This decision was an early adoption of what eventually became known as modern cultivation practices widely used in the region today.
In 1978 ‘Gianpi’ took over full management of Marrone and began a phase of expansion in the vineyards and the cellar space. His wife Giovanna, affectionately known as “Mamma Gio,” orchestrates private hospitality and is the kitchen director. For Giovanna, food is “tradition and Italian values that go hand with our wines.”
Since 2011 the winery has been run by “Tre Fie,” the three daughters of Gian Piero and Giovanna Marrone. Valentina is the winemaker, Serena runs marketing and business operations, and Denise is the hospitality heart and manager of the visitor programs and restaurant. The farm is run with minimal intervention in the vineyard, a philosophy that carries through from harvest to winemaking. The Marrone family pays careful attention to produce wines that are elegantly structured with the potential to evolve for decades.
The Wine
Vineyard Profile
Vineyards in Castiglione Falletto & La Morra, Barolo DOCG.
- Castiglione Falletto – high iron content, which converts into a richer color, bolder wines, structure and a stronger tannin, more power than the west side
- Altitude: 1150 feet/350 meters
- Exposure: Southwest
- Soil: Looser calcareous marl with high sandstone content, rich in iron
- La Morra – Tortonian soil, creating more perfumed, gentle, softer wines
- Altitude: 885 feet/270 meters
- Exposure: South
- Soil: Compact calcareous marl mixed with sand, rich in magnesium and manganese
- Vines Planted: average 1985
- Vine Training System: Traditional Guyot
Harvest Notes
- Hand harvested, with berry selection in vineyard and at cellar
- Each parcel vinified separately
- Fermented in stainless steel tanks for about a month
- Blended, malolactic fermentation in 50 hl wooden barrels and tonneaux
- Aged 30 months in oak, battonage on fine lees the 1st 8 months
- Bottled under nitrogen cover
Winemaker's Notes
A Barolo of great elegance from the 2021 vintage, renowned for its balance and finesse. Complex aromas of ripe cherry, rose, and fine spices blend with a harmonious palate, silky tannins, and a long, enveloping finish.
Wine Summary
100% Nebbiolo, “Lancia” & “Michet” biotypes; alcohol: 14%; vineyards in Castiglione Falletto & La Morra; altitudes 1150 & 885 feet; calcareous marl soils mixed with sand, limestone, and sandstone, rich in iron and minerals; hand harvested with 2 passes of berry selections; each parcel vinified separately; fermented about a month in stainless steel tanks; blended, malolactic fermentation in 50 Hl barrels and tonneaux; aged 30 months in oak, initial 8 months on fine lees with battonage; bottled under nitrogen cover.
Technical Information
- 100% Nebbiolo, “Lampia” and “Michet” biotypes
- Alcohol: 14%
- Total Acidity: 5.7 g/l
- Extract: 26.9 g/l
Reviews
93 Points
Complex and vibrant wine with dried cherries, licorice and sweet violets. Velvety on the palate with refined tannins, medium body, juicy acidity and a long, spicy finish. Drink or hold.
jamessuckling.com, January, 2025
93 Points
Bright lively red. Nicely approachable aromas and flavours of red fruit, sweet spices and herbs are complicated by hints of blood orange and musk. Nicely persistent on the energetic, bright, long, mineral finish. Lovely classic Barolo, this is really quite good. 2028 – 2037
Ian D'Agata Wine Review, May, 2025
91 Points
Here’s a Barolo that’s honest and straightforward. The nose opens with violets and red geraniums mingling with fresh oregano and thyme. Tannins arrive with refinement rather than force, while flavors of red cherries and wild strawberries keep the palate bright. It’s not trying to reinvent Barolo, but delivers a reliable, well-crafted expression. Like a local tailor’s blazer sewn with care and traditional skill, straightforward but showing clear attention to detail. Mar rone. Hidden Gem.
Wine Enthusiast, June, 2025
17 Points
Like walking a trail just before dawn, the wine is nothing but cool and in soft shadows. At first, all you can smell and taste is the soft press of footfall and forest floor. Then the milk-white spill of light starts to fill the air, and you can feel the aromatic freshness: cedar, broom, mint, grass. The wine fills the mid palate with ruby glow and it is still spilling, brimming, pooling with wild strawberry fruit and the tannins spill and brim and pool too, as if they don’t want the job of containment or control, they just want to be in the joy, in the flow. A wonderful Barolo for early drinking, which is not (even remotely) to say that it won’t last the distance or that it doesn’t have the complexity of others. 2025 – 2033
JancisRobinson.com, August, 2025
92 Points
The 2021 Barolo from the Marrone sisters is a lovely young wine. It is made from a mix of vineyard sources in the sisters’ home township of La Morra and Castiglione Falletto. The wine is aged for thirty months, primarily in botti, with a percentage done in smaller tonneau. The wine comes in at 14.5 percent octane and offers up a beautifully classical bouquet of red and black cherries, gamebird, a touch of camphor, a superb foundation of soil, rose petals, a dollop of fresh oregano and a topnote of distant bonfire. On the palate the wine is deep, pure and full-bodied, with a superb core of fruit, great soil transparency and grip, ripe, well-integrated tannins, fine focus and balance and a long, nascently complex finish. This is going to be an excellent bottle of Barolo, once it is ready to drink. 2040 – 2100
View From The Cellar, September, 2025
General Info
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Piedmont |
| Appellation(s) | Barolo DOCG; Langhe DOC |
| Proprietors | Gian Piero Marrone |
| Founded | 1887 |
| Winemaker | Valentina Marrone |
| Annual Production | 4600 9L cases |
| Farming (Sustainable, organic, biodynamic) | Farmed using organic principles |