Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A fresh and chewy red with plums, iodine, leather and a chocolate character. Full body, an excellent tannin structure and a flavorful finish. Extremely well done for the vintage. Needs two or three years to soften.
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Wine Enthusiast
Iris, rose, menthol and woodland berry aromas come to the forefront. On the succulent vital palate, taut, refined tannins and vibrant acidity provide seamless support for juicy Marasca cherry, crushed raspberry, licorice and white pepper. It’s loaded with finesse, and will develop even more complexity with more bottle age. Drink 2022–2028.
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Wine Spectator
Round and supple, this is bursting with pure cherry, strawberry, rose and stone flavors. Firms up nicely, with the tannins in balance with the weight and texture. Should come around soon. Best from 2021 through 2042.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is the first of Scavino's single-vineyard wines that I tasted in this lineup. It is the most accessible of these new releases from 2014. The 2014 Barolo Bricco Ambrogio comes from a unique vineyard site in the comune of Roddi that sticks out like an awkward thumb on a map of the greater Barolo appellation. In fact, Bricco Ambrogio is the only vineyard in Roddi registered to make Barolo. The temperatures are a bit lower here on average, from three to four degrees less that the rest of the appellation. The vines are planted at the top of a steep ridge where they are vulnerable to adverse weather. Despite these hardships, Enrico Scavino was one of the very first to believe in the potential of this cru. Soils consist of gray marl with layers of yellow sand. The wine presents a light and floral disposition with direct and immediate intensity. The finish is silky and long and wraps carefully over the palate.
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Wine & Spirits
This bears the stamp of the rainy 2014 vintage in its bold acidity and cool, fine-grained tannins. Those structural elements buoy the wine’s fresh cherry flavors, notes of orange peel, tobacco and espresso adding complexity. It’s immediately appealing, a versatile partner for pork or poultry dishes.
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.