Winemaker Notes
A deep wine characterized by an intense garnet red color, dark fruit like figs and black cherries, spicy notes such as nutmeg and black pepper. The texture is dense, rich and charming. The tannins have a full and round grain.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pouring a darker red color, the 2021 Barolo Prapo is more brooding and introspective, with layered aromatics of polished leather, balsamic herbs, black cherries, and espresso. It fills the palate with an expansive and saturating feel, with plush tannins, even acidity, and a very long finish. A fantastic wine that has a commanding yet well-detailed presence, with a good deal of grip on the finish, it’s another exceptional wine from Scavino that I would be thrilled to have stashed in the cellar over the next 15-20 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dark plum, black cherry, and crushed violet rise slowly with anise, licorice root, and stone's cool edge. There's real gravity, without heaviness. The wine's lifted, purposeful richness is shaped by the taut lines of Prapò's limestone soils and high elevation. Precise, present tannins are more sculptor than gatekeeper. A wine of depth, clarity and vision fully realized. It doesn't beg for attention, it earns it with every slow-building sip. A benchmark showing from one of Serralunga's most quietly powerful crus. Beautiful now, and destined for grace. Drink Now until you can no longer find.
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Wine Spectator
A brilliant red, whose cherry, raspberry, floral and fresh-cut hay aromas and flavors are expressive and fresh. Its structure is firm and dense, with fine-grained tannins and typical Serralunga tension. Harmonious but needs time to integrate, with a lingering, fruit- and mineral-tinged finish. Best from 2029 through 2050.
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James Suckling
This shows aromas of violets, crushed stones and dried cranberries. The palate is medium-bodied with caressing, chewy tannins and attractive fruit that will have to briefly wait for the tannins to recede. A solid wine. Better wait a few years to fully enjoy this exceptional wine. Try from 2027.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Here is an intense Nebbiolo that shows all the depth and power of Serralunga d'Alba. The Paolo Scavino 2021 Barolo Prapò is a well-built wine with ample flavor parameters that extend both horizontally and vertically. That wide sweep includes dark fruit, plum, red rose and iron ore. The tannins are a little softer compared to many other expressions from this village, and the wine offers medium-plus richness to close.
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.