Barolo substitute

Best substitute

Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba

Use the same amount as the barolo you are replacing

Best for brasato al Barolo

Close match

Do not cook with actual Barolo. Buy a Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba instead: it is the same grape from the same hills at a fraction of the price and substitutes 1:1, which is what cooks in Piedmont do. Barbaresco is also pure Nebbiolo and interchangeable. If you cannot find Nebbiolo at all, Barbera d'Asti works 1:1 but is much less tannic, so the sauce will be brighter and thinner; a Chianti Classico works too. Adding a small handful of dried porcini to the pot recovers some of the earthy, truffled depth that only Nebbiolo brings.

Other barolo substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Barbaresco
Close match
Use the same amount
Nebbiolo from a neighbouring commune, aged slightly less, and generally a touch more perfumed and marginally less massive, so it behaves the same way in a pot and tastes fractionally more elegant and less brooding.
What changes
Best for
brasato, risotto, beef braises, game, mushroom dishes
Functionally interchangeable with Barolo, and just as expensive, so this only makes sense if you already have an open bottle. If you do, use it and do not feel guilty; a braise made with either is superb.
3Barbera d'Asti or Barbera d'Alba
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
The everyday Piedmontese red, with even higher acidity than Nebbiolo but far less tannin, so a braise made with it tastes brighter, juicier and noticeably lighter in body, with none of the drying grip that gives brasato al Barolo its structure.
What changes
Best for
braises, risotto, ragu, sausage and pork, beans and lentils
Cheap, easy to find and genuinely traditional in the same kitchens. To make up for the missing structure, reduce the wine further before adding stock, and finish the sauce off the heat with a tablespoon of cold butter, which gives back some of the weight.
4Chianti Classico or Sangiovese
Different taste
Use the same amount
Shares the high acidity, tart cherry fruit and savoury leather quality, and has moderate tannin, so it fills the same structural role reasonably well, but it has none of Nebbiolo's rose-and-tar perfume and reads as more herbal and tomato-friendly.
What changes
Best for
beef braises, ragu, tomato-based stews, pork, beans
The most widely available substitute that will not let you down. The gap is aromatic rather than structural, which is why the dried porcini trick helps so much when you use it in a Piedmontese recipe.
5Valpolicella Ripasso, or Amarone diluted
Taste and texture differ
Ripasso 1:1; Amarone 3 parts wine to 1 part water
Both are made partly from dried grapes, so they bring a raisiny, bittersweet richness Barolo does not have, and Amarone in particular is high in alcohol and slightly sweet, which makes a braise taste rounder and more port-like rather than austere and perfumed.
What changes
Best for
beef and game braises, short ribs, risotto, long-cooked stews
Delicious but a different dish. Cut any sugar in the recipe, since the dried-grape sweetness concentrates, and stop reducing sooner than you would with Nebbiolo to avoid a syrupy result.
6Beef stock plus sour cherry juice, vinegar and dried porcini (alcohol-free)
Taste and texture differ
For 1 cup Barolo, use ¾ cup beef stock, ¼ cup unsweetened sour cherry juice, 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar and 5g dried porcini
This is a rebuild rather than a substitute, and it is worth being clear that it cannot approach the original: you get savoury depth, tart cherry fruit, acidity and genuine earthy umami from the mushrooms, but no tannic grip and none of the floral perfume that defines Nebbiolo.
What changes
Best for
alcohol-free braises, beef stews, risotto, gravies
Soak the porcini in hot water, chop them into the dish and add the strained soaking liquid, which is where most of the flavour is. Add the vinegar off the heat. The result is a very good beef braise that is honestly not a version of brasato al Barolo.

What is Barolo?

Barolo is Barolo is a red wine from Piedmont in north-west Italy made entirely from the Nebbiolo grape and aged at least three years before release, and it is unusual in being pale garnet in the glass while carrying enormous tannin and acidity, with aromas of dried cherry, rose petal, tar and truffle.

Cooking tips

Understand what Nebbiolo actually contributes and the substitution becomes obvious. It gives a braise three things: very high acidity, which slowly breaks down the connective tissue and keeps a fatty cut of beef from tasting heavy; unusually high tannin, which gives the finished sauce a firm, structured grip rather than a soft fruity sweetness; and a distinctive perfume of rose, dried cherry and tar. The first two are what make the dish work, and a good Langhe Nebbiolo or even Barbera delivers them.
Never pour a genuine bottle of Barolo into a three-hour braise. The aromatics that take a decade in the bottle to develop are volatile and gone within minutes over heat, so what remains after simmering is tannin, acid and colour, which a twenty-dollar Nebbiolo supplies identically. If authenticity matters, cook with the cheaper bottle and stir a tablespoon of the good one into the finished sauce off the heat, where its perfume survives.
Marinate the beef in the wine overnight for brasato. A whole piece of chuck or brisket sitting in wine with onion, carrot, celery, bay, clove and a strip of orange peel picks up colour and acidity right through, and the marinade then becomes the braising liquid so nothing is wasted. Pat the meat dry before browning, otherwise it will steam instead of searing.
Barolo's tannin can turn bitter if you reduce the sauce too far. Braise gently at a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil, strain the sauce, and if it tastes astringent whisk in cold butter off the heat, which coats the tannin and rounds it out immediately. A small pinch of sugar also helps, though butter is the better fix.
A handful of dried porcini is the closest thing to a shortcut for Nebbiolo's truffled, forest-floor character, and it is a genuinely Piedmontese addition rather than a cheat. Five grams soaked in hot water, chopped and added with their strained liquid, will make a braise built on ordinary Barbera or Chianti taste much more like it came from Alba.

Frequently asked questions

Do I really need Barolo to make brasato al Barolo?

No, and cooks in Piedmont generally do not use it. What the dish needs is Nebbiolo, and a Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba is the same grape from the same hills for a small fraction of the price. The three years of ageing that make a wine legally Barolo produce delicate aromas that evaporate almost immediately in a hot pot, so you would be paying for something the cooking destroys.

Can I just leave the wine out?

Not really, in this dish. The wine is a full bottle in most brasato recipes and it provides the liquid, the colour, the acidity that tenderises the beef over hours and the entire flavour identity. If you need to cook without alcohol, use the stock, sour cherry juice, vinegar and dried porcini build above, and treat the result as a very good red-braised beef rather than as brasato.

Is Nebbiolo the same as Barolo?

Nebbiolo is the grape and Barolo is a place in Piedmont whose wine must be made entirely from it and aged at least 38 months. Barbaresco is the same grape from a neighbouring zone, and Langhe Nebbiolo, Nebbiolo d'Alba and Roero are the less regulated, younger, cheaper versions. Every one of them will taste recognisably of Nebbiolo, which is what your recipe actually wants.

Why is my Barolo braise bitter or drying in the mouth?

That is tannin, concentrated by reduction. Nebbiolo starts with more tannin than almost any other grape, so a sauce reduced as hard as you might reduce a Merlot will taste astringent. Whisk a tablespoon or two of cold butter into the strained sauce off the heat, which physically coats the tannin, and add a little more stock if it is still harsh. Next time, simmer more gently and reduce less.

What is the cheapest wine that will work in a Piedmontese braise?

Barbera, which is the everyday red of the same region and typically costs very little. It is far less tannic than Nebbiolo, so the sauce will be brighter and lighter rather than firm and structured, and you should reduce it further and finish with butter to compensate. Add dried porcini for earthiness and the dish will still taste like it belongs in Piedmont.

Related substitutes

More alcohol & vinegars substitutes

Barolo substitute

Other barolo substitutes

2Barbaresco

3Barbera d'Asti or Barbera d'Alba

4Chianti Classico or Sangiovese

5Valpolicella Ripasso, or Amarone diluted

6Beef stock plus sour cherry juice, vinegar and dried porcini (alcohol-free)