Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2001 Barolo Cannubi, a dark ruby, is a classic in the making. It offers a multi-dimensional, delicate nose of flowers, menthol and minerals with plenty of ripe dark cherry fruit, great length and a nuanced, ethereal finish. It will require at least a few years of bottle age and will still be vibrant and full of flavor at age 20. Compared to Scavino’s more imposing Barolos Carobric and Bric del Fiasc, the Cannubi can sometimes be overpowered, but given some cellaring it typically begins to strut its stuff around age 10 and develops into a magical Barolo that can challenge many of the region’s top wines. I still have fond memories of the sublime 1989 and 1990 tasted last year. A great effort.
Rating:94+ -
Wine Spectator
Loads of fascinating aromas—plums, dried flowers and berries—follow through to a full-bodied palate, with velvety tannins and a long, long finish. Caressing and refined. Another wonderful Cannubi from Scavino.
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.