Barolo suggestions

I'm organizing a wine tasting focusing on Northern Italy and among other rossos, I would like to have a Barolo. I will have a total of 8 wines, which of course doesn't do justice to NI. My budget is about $400 (including cheese and bread), so I can go $40-50 on the Barolo. I have never tasted Barolo, but have tasted Nebbiolo wines. Barolos appear to be too expensive to just go out and try a few. This wine tasting group doesn't have a problem with big, muscular wines so we don't necessarily have to pick a 'young-drinking' one. Thanks for any suggestions!

Try the 1997 Ceretto Zonchero Barolo. You should be able to find it for under $40.00 and it's a good representation of modern Barolo yet is approachable and delicious.

A good way to understand Barolo and Barbaresco is to do a tasting with wines from its subdivisions ie communes.

So you would need to have a Barolo from Monforte d' Alba, La Morra, Castiglione Falletto, Serralunga d' Alba and the commune of Barolo; Barbaresco from Neive, Treiso and Barbaresco.

There are distinct differences in taste in each of these communes-indeed like Burgundy it almost depends on the cru or further subdivisions.

Tracing the nebbiolo leads to other tastings from the Alba area; Roero, Nebbiolo di Alba and Nebbiolo della Langhe; the Novarra-Vercelli area; Gattinara, Ghemme, Sizzano, Fara, Spanna or to the Northeast ;Carema, Lessona and Bramaterra and in Aosta, the sublime Donnas.

Nebbiolo is also grown way north of Milano in Lombardy in the Valtellina, where you find communes like Sassella, Valgella,Inferno,Grumello, Valtellina Superior and a desserst styled Sfursat all having nebbiolo as a base.

Reading the labels of Barolo/Barbaresco should tell you where they are from. If you are limited in resources La Morra/Barolo are lighter more elegant than the other three, so I'd have lets say a La Morra(Ratti) and a Castiglione Falletto(Vietti), a Barbaresco(aged one less year than Barolo), a Roero, a Nebbiolo d'Alba and a Gattinara. That gives you six nebbiolo based wines from differing geographic areas.

Barolo Cannubi gets very good reviews here. It need 5-10 years on the bottle before drinking it, otherwise it needs to be opened 2-3 days before serving (a review says that).

It is a specific Wine.

This is the label:

FAQ worthy, Joe.

Dessert style Sfursat? This is a red DRY wine made from air-dried grapes! The extra concentration goes into extra alcohol, not residual sugar. The result is superlative, with a nose that few Barolos can achieve using the same grape...

Excellent guide! One would think you spent some time there? )