Winemaker Notes
This more feminine Barolo shows minty floral notes on the nose which develop further in the glass with personality on top of the elegant textured fruit. The structure is pure Monvigliero. The tannins are silky soft, and the expression of fruit is bold and rich, with a long persistent aftertaste that brings you back to the glass over and over again.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A young Barolo with intense rose petal and berry aromas and flavors. Full body, firm tannins and a fresh and clean finish. Very fine indeed. Better in 2018.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Barolo Monvigliero is one of the most distinctive of Paolo Scavino's excellent wines. Fruit is from the Verduno township that is showing some of the most exciting results in the appellation today. This is an elegant and tightly knitted wine with firm texture, dark concentration and a voluptuous personality. The bouquet opens to dark fruit, plum, blackberry and delicate spice. It should stand up well to the aging process.
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Wine Enthusiast
Camphor, espresso and black-skinned berry lead the nose while the delicious palate offers crushed black raspberry, orange peel, white pepper, chopped herb and a hint of star anise. It's tightly wound with youthfully firm but elegant tannins. Drink 2018–2024.
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.