Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesIris, woodland berry, menthol and exotic spice scents shape the enticing nose. It’s firm and elegantly structured, delivering red cherry, spiced cranberry and licorice before a minty finish. Finegrained tannins and fresh acidity lend balance and support. Hold for even more complexity. Drink 2026–2036.
The Scavino family has produced a single-vineyard expression of Monvigliero since 2006, as they have long believed in this site in Verduno. The Paolo Scavino 2016 Barolo Monvigliero opens to blue flowers, dried lavender and lilac. There are pretty fruit tones as well with wild berry and sour cherry. The overall effect is feather light and lithe, with polished streamlined intensity and finely polished tannins. The most beautiful thing about this wine is that it builds in intensity the longer it stays in the glass.
Plenty of plum and dried-strawberry aromas with hazelnut and tar. Complex and exciting. Medium to full body, firm and chewy tannins and a powerful finish. This is really structured and serious. Try after 2024.
A ripe, lush red, with a sleekness to the almost viscous texture that corrals the cherry, spice and menthol flavors. There is intensity here that extends on the long, chalky finish, which is more compact than the start. Best from 2023 through 2040.
Paolo Scavino is an historical winery in the Barolo region. It was founded in 1921 in Castiglione Falletto from Lorenzo Scavino and his son Paolo. Farming has always been a family tradition and passion.
Enrico Scavino together with the daughters Enrica and Elisa, fourth generation, run the family Estate. He started to work full time in the winery in 1951 when he was 10 years old. A young winemaker who inherited the passion and devotion for the land he belongs to. Through over 60 years of experience his focus has been to invest on important cru of Nebbiolo to show the uniqueness of each terroir.
Their work is inspired by the love and respect they have for their territory and they pursue purity of expression, complexity and elegance for their wines from the three local grapes Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo.
These values and culture have been carried on and never changed.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo 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, 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 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 soils types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.
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.
