Advertisement for the Mirafiore Barolo, a fine Italian wine. Barolo lies just south-west of Alba in Italy's north-western Piedmont region. Granted its DOCG classification in 1980, it is considered one of the finest and longest-lived wines, often referred to as “the king of wines and the wine of kings”. Until the mid-1800s Barolo wines were sweet, containing a substantial quantity of residual sugar, but their modern form is unquestionably dry and decidedly tannic.