Nicolas Belfrage: Medium deep with a tawny rim. Slightly overripe fruit notes on the nose, but floral aromas compensate. In the mouth the tannins are a bit green, and this detracts from otherwise good fruit, but it should come around in time. 87

Bruno Besa: Transparent garnet to tawny. Clean, intense, classically restrained nose of rosewater, violets, small red fruits, and hints of figs and mint with good minerality. Medium body, with clean fruit and a long mineral finish. A very well-made classic Barolo. 89

Andrew Jefford: Deep but clear and resonant garnet red. Complex, subtle, and very satisfying: grand refinement of warm fruit scents. Glowing, earthy, humus-informed: a super nose. Rich, full, mouth-filling, and commanding: evidently a grand wine. Perhaps La Morra in fact has the lightest fruit structure of any of the great villages, but what it hangs under that fruit is so rich, so full, so polyphenolically detaining that you can’t but be enchanted. There’s also a richness and a creaminess to it that are totally engaging. This is a truly wonderful 2011. It isn’t the most opulent, the most densely fruited, the basso profondo, but in terms of detail, energy, life, grip, and mid-weight magic, it is up there with the best. 94