Paolo ScavinoBarolo Ravera 2015

The nose is really spot-on here, delivering a wholesome array of fresh hibiscus, redcurrants, fruit tea and rose petals. The palate is very silky and polished, weaving its way neatly through finely arranged layers of bright red fruit. Medium-to full-bodied and wonderfully elegant.

Here is another rookie in the lineup for Paolo Scavino. The Ravera vineyard was purchased in 2015, at 2.7 hectares and about 360 meters in altitude. It is their highest vineyard and the last to be harvested every year. This east-facing parcel is never too hot, always showing cooler-climate conditions than the others, with fine tannins and a good dose of acidity. The 2015 Barolo Ravera is a very tight and and precise wine, with notes of exotic tea that follow blackberry, dried cherry and licorice. This is a great new addition to the Scavino portfolio at this time of important changes for the winery.

Enticing scents of iris, botanical herbs and woodland berries are front and center on this fragrant red. The firm palate offers Marasca cherry, pomegranate, star anise and white pepper alongside youthfully assertive, fine-grained tannins.

The 2015 Barolo Ravera is rather dense and monolithic in feel. And even so, there is something about the Ravera that is deeply intriguing. Rose petal, chalk, pine and a host of mineral and floral notes are presently buried under the wine´s huge fruit, but there is plenty to look forward to. I can´t wait to see how the 2015 ages, and how future vintages develop. To be sure, this is an impressive debut.

Pure and smooth in texture, featuring cherry, plum, soy, tar, tobacco and eucalyptus flavors that stay focused from beginning to end. Though firm, the tannins have a plumpness to them. Gains equilibrium in the end.