Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Saturated with cherry, raspberry and violet aromas and flavors, this pure and silky red is both elegant and beautifully structured. Very expressive today, already showing harmony and excellent length on the finish, with mineral and underbrush accents adding depth.
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James Suckling
Aromas of slate, raspberry, black cherry and dried strawberry follow through to a full body with firm and linear tannins, and a racy acidity that runs long and bright. Needs time to soften but wonderful length. Drink after 2028.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from Verduno, the 2019 Barolo Monvigliero is nuanced with spices and floral elegance and is pure and ripe with raspberry liqueur, rose petal, peppercorn, and cedar. This medium-bodied red is svelte and refined while having good concentration and drive, with notes of pomegranate, orange zest, and dusty earth. Zesty and lifted, this will take another couple of years to open and mature into the graceful wine it is destined to become. Drink 2025-2040.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Continuing on a tour of the major villages of Barolo, this wine takes us to the hilltops of Verduno. The Paolo Scavino 2019 Barolo Monvigliero shows lifted aromas of wild cherry and lavender that emerge from a broader background of dark primary fruit. The wine offers medium concentration and silky tannins. But again, I find the bouquet to be a bit closed at this very young stage. There is more energy in the palate thanks to the natural freshness of Nebbiolo.
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.