Winemaker Notes
Offers loads of plum, flowers and herbs on the nose. Full-bodied, with chewy tannins and a long, long finish. Very rich and layered. Fabulous. The selection of grapes from Scavino's 3 cru vineyards, Rocche di Castiglione, Cannubi and Bric dël Fiasc, gives balance and complexity to this wine.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
This blend of top vineyards shows verve and clarity with ripe and silky tannins and plenty of plum, cherry and terra-cotta aromas and flavors. Full body, firm backbone of tannins and acidity. Clean finish. Drink in 2020.
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2012 Paolo Scavino Barolo Carobric offers a brightness that could be enjoyed now or with a few years in the cellar. The wine shows excellent red fruit, drive, and minerality. The wine's freshness suggests a pairing with braised pork dish. Additional aging would make it a beautiful candidate with an aged Gruyere cheese. (Tasted: May 16, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
-
Wine Enthusiast
Intensely fragrant, this opens with scents of violet, rose, perfumed berry and a subtle whiff of menthol. The elegant, structured palate delivers tart cherry, white pepper, clove and a hint of coffee alongside firm, fine-grained tannins. Drink 2020–2028.
-
Wine Spectator
A linear, high-tension red, this offers macerated cherry, strawberry, licorice, mineral and tobacco flavors stretched taut against the firm structure. Fine energy and a long aftertaste indicate the potential. Best from 2019 through 2035.
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.