Winemaker Notes
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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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
To be released in January 2025, the Paolo Scavino 2021 Barolo is bright and vivid, showing the focus and character of the vintage. This sample is still quite tight, and the tannins are firmly knit. However, the tannins are more elegant and silkier in the 2021 compared to 2020. I recommend giving this wine more time in bottle to allow it to fully flesh out.
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James Suckling
Restrained and compact nose with vibrant violets and dried cherries, refreshed by pomegranate and oak bark. Full-bodied on the palate with a sold backbone of tannins that turn dusty and drier on the finish. Crisp acidity and an austere aftertaste. Try from 2027.
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Wine Spectator
Lacy and elegant, yet with ample tannins for structure, featuring rose, strawberry, cherry and mineral aromas and flavors. Pure and focused, this red stays in the red fruit spectrum through the long finish. Shows excellent balance in its youthful way. Best from 2028 through 2045.
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Decanter
From nine sites spread throughout the villages of Castiglione Falletto, Barolo, Serralunga and Monforte, Scavino’s classic Barolo isn’t crafted simply for accessibility. It is, perhaps, more immediately harmonious than the MGA bottlings. Entrancing aromas combine truffle, orange and potting soil, with intense violet as it opens. Heftier and fuller than the nose suggests, the palate demonstrates ample fruit ripeness and lots of chalky tannins. Satisfyingly confident in its grip, the tangy finish echoes all the wine's innate prettiness.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Barolo pours a bright red hue and offers a floral perfume of fresh roses, tarragon, ripe cherries, and cedar. It’s compact and medium-bodied, with a refined feel, snappy acidity, mouthwatering salinity, and well-defined tannins. It offers a more nervous and structured energy at this early tasting and will only benefit from another 6-12 months in bottle. Overall, it feels more precise in this vintage and worth having several bottles to check in on.
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.