Winemaker Notes
#78 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2023
This Barolo represents the history and tradition of blending different crus of Nebbiolo in order to create a house style. The same care and quality work are employed on this wine as for all of the cru Barolo. This wine is an opportunity for many clients to enjoy a great Barolo with an exceptional price quality ratio.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The fresh flowers, like roses, really come through here. Perfumed. Sliced strawberry and citrus. Full-bodied with linear and tight tannins. Bright acidity gives it drive and focus. Give it four or five years to soften and come together.
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Wine Spectator
A supple, vibrant Barolo, with fine depth to the cherry, raspberry and floral aromas and flavors. Solidly built, with refined tannins and a long, juicy aftertaste. Reveals earth, iron and tobacco accents that linger. Best from 2026 through 2042.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pouring a jeweled ruby hue, the 2019 Barolo is lovely and detailed, with floral perfume and notes of candied roses, raspberry preserves, and sweet baking spices. This medium-bodied red is mouthwatering from the start and is balanced with ripe red berries, orange peel, and cinnamon. Fine yet present tannins are propelled forward by fresh acidity and a mineral-tinged finish. I continue to be impressed with the direction this estate has been heading in, and this wine is certainly no exception, lending great insight into the work they have put in. Best After 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Paolo Scavino 2019 Barolo (with Enrico Scavino's signature on the front label) was a little slow to open and showed some reductive qualities when I tasted it. Give it more time to develop. Reading between the lines, you get bright cherry and raspberry with mild spice, licorice and tar. It ends with mineral sensations and easy Nebbiolo tannins (that are still young but aligned).
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo wine region includes five core townships: La Morra, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and the Barolo village itself, as well as a few outlying villages. The landscape of Barolo, characterized by prominent and castle-topped hills, is full of history and romance centered on the Nebbiolo grape. Its wines, with the signature “tar and roses” aromas, have a deceptively light garnet color but full presence on the palate and plenty of tannins and acidity. In a well-made Barolo wine, one can expect to find complexity and good evolution with notes of, for example, strawberry, cherry, plum, leather, truffle, anise, fresh and dried herbs, tobacco and violets.
There are two predominant soil types here, which distinguish Barolo from the lesser surrounding areas. Compact and fertile Tortonian sandy marls define the vineyards farthest west and at higher elevations. Typically the Barolo wines coming from this side, from La Morra and Barolo, can be approachable relatively early on in their evolution and represent the “feminine” side of Barolo, often closer in style to Barbaresco with elegant perfume and fresh fruit.
On the eastern side of the Barolo wine region, Helvetian soils of compressed sandstone and chalks are less fertile, producing wines with intense body, power and structured tannins. This more “masculine” style comes from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba. The township of Castiglione Falletto covers a spine with both soil types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.