Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesLots of dried orange peel, strawberry and watermelon on the nose. Full-bodied with loads of intense fruit and chewy tannins. Really big and structured, but remains energetic and solid.
The 2017 Barolo Prapo parcel is 0.9 hectares at 350 meters elevation. With the highest proportion of limestone soils, it provides the most structure of the Schiavenza wines. The Prapo is more introverted aromatically, with licorice, balsamic, and baked cherry. The structure is balanced and firm, warranting time in cellar to soften its grip. Brooding with tobacco, cherry pit, and stony minerality, the Prapo is classic, dark fruited and grounded.
Forest floor, incense and menthol aromas mingle with whiffs of blue flowers and baked plum. Young and primary, the brawny palate offers dried cherry, licorice, grilled herbs and the heat of evident alcohol framed in close-grained tannins that grip the close. Give the tannins a few years to unfurl then drink sooner rather than later to capture the remaining fruit and freshness. Best After 2024
The Schiavenza 2017 Barolo Prapò is a mostly subdued wine in terms of aromas but a powerful wine in terms of mouthfeel (and its 15% alcohol content). The bouquet shows soft touches of cherry liqueur and dried blackberry that progress to smoke, tar and rusty nail. The wine is not especially intense in terms of its bouquet, but it does show a lot more intensity and determination to the palate with fine tannins and tight structure. Like the other releases from this estate, this 2017 vintage of 2,200 bottles is best suited for near and mid-term drinking, perhaps with a fatty liver pâté.
This Barolo is firm and linear, with assertive tannins making their presence felt early and lingering on. Menthol, leather, plum, fruitcake and iron flavors ply the rustic profile.
Schiavenza is located in Serralunga d'Alba in the heart of Piedmont's Langhe district, celebrated for its great Barolo vineyards. The estate was founded in 1956 by the brothers Vittorio and Ugo Alessandria; the estate and surrounding area were formerly part of the Opera Pia Barolo (a castle that is kind of like the Hospices du Beaune: part educational institution and part hospital) whose vineyards were traditionally worked by sharecroppers. The local dialect for sharecropper is schiavenza. Today, the estate is run by the second-generation Alessandria sisters, Enrica and Maura, and their husbands Luciano Pira and Walter Anselma.
In the vineyard, they do not use pesticides or herbicides. Harvest is manual and is conducted according to the phases of the moon. In the cellar, they use only naturally occurring yeasts, and ferment the wines in cement cisterns. In terms of aging, this is no modern barrique-aged Barolo estate: the wines here are aged for extended period of time in the traditional large Slovenian barrels called botti. The quality here is shockingly good. Schiavenza's wines are elegant, pure expressions of Nebbiolo that would embarrass many a more famous address. to the market at prices that are lower than ever.
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.
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.