Critics Average score from professional wine critics and publications.
96
/100
Reviews
22
professional
Vintages
1
1989
Other
96/100
Nebbiolo
NV
Community Reviews
3232
Reviews
95.5
Avg Score
100
Highest
Taster #0242
· Sep 26, 2025
96/100
From 2 good looking bottles, this wine performed exactly like it has in the past. It opened strong and then became a bit more muted, only to slowly get stronger and more complex as the hours passed. I recommend at least 6 hours in a decanter. Outstanding!
1989 vintage
Taster #0242
· Aug 1, 2025
97/100
So gorgeous with great fruit, viscous mouth feel, and substantial structure. Despite it mature looking color, this was still young and quite wonderful. Yes, this wine starts out reasonably strong and then the volume declines. However, after several hours of air, it starts coming back again stronger than before and with more complexity. If you don't have time a splash decant is good, but I prefer to open these '89s early in the day for dinner!
1989 vintage
Taster #9004
· Apr 5, 2025
97/100
Stupendous & Unforgettable.
1989 vintage
Taster #2876
· Jul 4, 2024
96/100
Now we’re talking. Much better than many examples of the 1990. Not cloudy. Meaty with loads of raspberries, roses, tar and asphalt. Pure and amazing balance. Really like this one
1989 vintage
Taster #2026
· Apr 20, 2024
93/100
Soft, aromatic and pretty. Fully mature and probably not improving from here. Very solid, but not drinking at quite the same level as many of the mid/late 90s vintages of white label giacosa I've had in recent years.
1989 vintage
Taster #5317
· Jan 16, 2024
M&PD Tasting: Italy (Seattle, WA, USA) : Sadly this bottle was a touch oxidized with an overt celery salt component on the nose that would never shake. Some VA and more lifted aromatic do also peek out over time. Such a palate, rose and cherry, incredibly energy and acidity. Yet there is a caramel sweetness that creeps in and shows the oxidation.
1989 vintage
Taster #6047
· Jan 16, 2024
MPD dinner at Nell’s. A bit of heat weighing down wine. Hard to judge. When opened, was alive and peppery. Ox took over fairly quickly.
1989 vintage
Taster #1410
· Aug 18, 2023
Restaurant note. 3 hour decant, returned to bottle and then 90 minute more decant before dinner course. Pale tawny, but surprisingly clear Heady spices, tar and smoke, soy, wood spice, floral, roses, cherry, mushroom, Indian spices, clove, dried herbs. Complex wine. Best taste was last taste at dinner’s end after total of 6+ hour decant. Old school Barolo, and Giacosa in particular, once again needs more time than you would think and in the case of older vintages, may be …
1989 vintage
Taster #2268
· Aug 6, 2023
93/100
Perfectly stored since release, high fill. Cork soaked to 20%. Ruby with broad orange rim. Only hints of cherry fruit left and with tertiary scents and flavors like soy, tobacco, menthol, smoke, almonds and sherry notes. Definitely in his late winter of its life and past his prime. 4/13/18/7. Drink it up!
1989 vintage
Taster #2268
· Jun 8, 2023
95/100
Perfectly cellared since release at 12°C. Cork in pristine condition. Limpid ruby in thick layers to orange and amber. Only hints of cherry fruit survived, mainly now soy, pine and spices. On the palate showing more complexity with some more fruit and lovage, chamomille, tannins nearly completely resolved, with the exception of the last glass from bottle. No decant. Definetily in the winter of its life and for my palate even past its prime. Nevertheless it will slowly dull over …
1989 vintage
Taster #2230
· Oct 13, 2022
Delicate nose, floral and secondary. Sweet evolved fruit on the palate, again delicate but with lovely balance and persistency. Served later alongside the Falletto, the classic village differences were apparent although by this stage (the second half of the bottle) the Santo Stefano ad become a bit muted by sediment. These old Giacosas should always be decanted: the Falletto had been decanted and remained clear as a bell.
1989 vintage
Taster #6670
· Jun 13, 2021
97/100
Classic. Complex aromatics of dark cherry, iron, minerals and tobacco. Powerful and hugely structured. Still comes off as very young and this needed far more air time than we gave it. Improved to the last sip. A great Giacosa. 97+
1989 vintage
Taster #4285
· Apr 27, 2021
94/100
Elegant and detailed nose has earth, smoke, Italian spice (oregano?) and some nice fall leaf tertiary spice on top of fully mature and drying red fruit. Stood up for several days and carefully decanted so the glasses were fresh and clean. Lighter style red fruit on the palate. Still has some unresolved tannin. Very nice. Superior to a ’90 Collina Rionda served later on.
1989 vintage
Taster #4899
· Nov 7, 2020
94/100
Saturday lunch gathering (Bethesda, Maryland) : Medium expressive nose dominated by iron, also sweet red fruit, strawberry jam, a hint of cherry, cedar, leather, cinnamon and iron mineral. Fully integrated palate, finely layered slightly coiled red fruit, silky and polished, bright acidity and iron mineral, still showing significant tannins, and a medium to long slightly dry sweet red fruit driven finish with iron at the end. This was decanted ahead. This may be a blasphemy for some but I prefer …
1989 vintage
Taster #5411
· Aug 5, 2020
Not blind. That nose! It's a combination of balsamic, rose petals and some strawberry fruit with a touch of VA that is just intoxicating. The nose alone is worth the price of admission, and it took me 5 minutes before I even tasted the wine. You can tell the VA on the nose, but this is a wine where the VA is perfectly integrated. On the palate, the fruit hits you, and it's somehow both sappy, balanced and seamless at …
1989 vintage
Taster #5777
· May 29, 2020
94/100
My only bottle of this wine, opened at a great moment in its aging curve. It's all there, and has the classic Giacosa profile of dense fruit, spice, herbs, combined with the tertiary notes of smoke and leather. There's a reason we like Giacosa so much.
1989 vintage
Taster #5338
· Oct 25, 2019
99/100
1989 Retrospective at Leonti Hugley perfumed: a lung filling nose with roses, cherry fruit, and balsamic notes more than tar. Smelling this would have been enough, and on the palate the beauty continued with tremendous sap and breadth. It's expansive, with near perfect balance, richness, and depth that seems bottomless. All without any fat to it. Perfectly balanced acidity acts as a perfect counter to the power and extract. A tremendous expression of effortless power without weight. Near perfect with …
1989 vintage
Taster #6838
· May 25, 2019
Happily a very good bottle. Opened about 1 hour before drinking, no decant. I wish I had, because the wine had a lot of residu and would probably have benefited from a little more air. Nevertheless, we enjoyed it a lot, with Irene from Montemercurio, birthyear 1989. Yes, this is a very good wine.
1989 vintage
Taster #7221
· Feb 15, 2019
94/100
This was the only wine from this lineup that became more closed than open after being decanted. The nose was dark and brooding, almost like you could tell that the ‘89 Santo Stefano wasn’t ready to be opened yet. Notes of red berries, minerals and sweet florals wafted up from the glass with coaxing. On the palate, I found a compact expression, with silky textures ushering in dark red fruits, sweet and sour spice, earthy minerals and residual fine tannin. …
1989 vintage
Taster #4899
· Sep 14, 2018
100/100
1989 Piedmont Retrospective (Cinghiale, Baltimore) : Beautiful perfectly mature complex nose displaying subtle sweet red fruit, strawberry jam, raspberry, dry cherry, cedar, spearmint, anise, Asian spices, cinnamon, leather and iron mineral. Perfect balance and harmony, very finely layered subtle sweet red fruit, soft, sweet and warm, exceptional precision and detail, perfect amount of acidity and mineral, most resolved very fine tannins, and an incredibly long sweet red fruit driven finish with a hint of mint and Asian spices at the …
1989 vintage
Taster #5338
· Sep 14, 2018
99/100
1989 Nebbiolo at Cinghiale (Cinghiale, Baltimore) : '89 nebbiolo at Cinghiale Roses and tar on the nose. A touch of caramel that blew off. Terrific texture. A profoundly deep nose and palate. Rich yet with great tension and balance. Some Luden's cough drop cherry balsamic notes fill your nose and then your whole palate when you drink it. Expansive yet graceful, with terror sap and Giacosa sweet fruit. This wine just flows everywhere filling the space with its perfume. Over …
1989 vintage
Taster #8449
· Aug 20, 2018
Displayed traits of maderization.
1989 vintage
Taster #5501
· Sep 5, 2017
100/100
The flight of SSRs included the 90, 89, 85 and 82 and was my favorite flight of the night. The 90 is at its apogee and clearly drinking the best now. the 89 is a monster, 100 point wine which just keeps getter better as long as we drink it. The 85 was my least favorite and the 82 I thought was intense and rich. Most people felt the opposite about the last two
1989 vintage
Taster #8449
· Apr 12, 2017
96/100
Clean and pure. Great bottle of this wine.
1989 vintage
Taster #5501
· Feb 24, 2017
corked
1989 vintage
Taster #4899
· Apr 15, 2016
Weekend with Eddie - Part 1 (Marea, New York City) : I realize that this is highly revered. Even if this was not served in the same flight as the 89 Falletto riserva and CRR, this would have been a bit of disappointment. Delicate red fruit driven nose, strawberry water, rose, kerosene, tar, iron, fungus and truffle. Delicate palate, a hint of oxidative note, good mineral presence and medium finish with a hint of rot as the end note. Around …
1989 vintage
Taster #1528
· Oct 10, 2015
Double decanted a few hours before serving, quite a bit of sediment. beautiful color, an initially reticent nose. When served this had opened up somewhat sharing a firm red fruit and floral core. Intense but balanced this is still a baby. There was an off component to the nose that lingered, perhaps the decanter or glasses were not well cleaned, odd and hard to pinpoint. A good but unspectacular showing compared to prior bottles. This was served along side a …
1989 vintage
Taster #5501
· Jun 10, 2015
98/100
Powerful, intense and very drinkable. Layered and silky and it will only get better
1989 vintage
Taster #9405
· Sep 15, 2014
95/100
Decanted 2 hours. IN fill. Sound cork. Light color, brick orange rim. Medium+ intense aromas of tobacco, leather, dried roses and sweet fruit. Red fruit driven palate with a most seductive sweetness that only a begining mature wine can show. Melted down tannins smooths this one out nicely with a brilliant long finish with some earthy minerals at the end. Not the most complex or concentrated vineyard from Giacosa, but in this vintage it really shines! Can be kept longer …
1989 vintage
Taster #2840
· Mar 18, 2007
92/100
A Fully mature Barbaresco. Needs quite some air to open up but then.... a superripe wine! a nose of flowers, dried flowers, dark fruit and a little madeira. barnyard great fruit, ripe dark fruit. nice acidity to give the wine its freshness. soft tannins. a beautiful wine that seems older than it is. its color is amber and bricky at the rim. a real treat! No need to wait any longer, but it will keep this quality for 5-10 years.
1989 vintage
Taster #0487
· Feb 19, 2005
91/100
Colour ruby-red, an orange rim starting to appear. On the nose perferctly mature and soft, a few hints of roses and tobacco. Was decanted a couple of hours in advance but still seemed closed. On the palate sweetish and round but this wine is lacking the backbone and thus the balance that the best wines from Giacosa have. Tons of dark cherries and plums are present on the palate. Drink up - will not improve.
1989 vintage
Taster #0487
· Dec 18, 2004
91/100
Decanted and drunk over the course of two hours. Colour ruby-red, starting to show signs of maturity at the rim. The nose is improving with time, starting sligthly subdued but blooming later on. First impression is an almost portlike sweetness, tobacco and tar. On the palate the sweetness again but the wine is growing with time, gaining weight and details. Has an almost ehteral texture and lightless - amazing. Fine balance - the acidity perhaps a bit low. Will last …
1989 vintage