Barolo, Margheria, 2010

This surpasses all other Margherias from this stable. A simply wonderful effort. Dark, spicy and fortifying without being too heavy handed in fact this has more lift and zip than any previous vintage we have tasted, alluring dark fruit flavours of bramble and blueberry with a faint touch of liquorice mixed with notes of rock salt. An outstandingly elegant Margheria. A single vineyard Cru in the Serralunga commune that used to go into the regular Barolo, but which Azelia started bottling up separately from the 2003 vintage. The soils are very poor and shallow, being a mixture of white clay and limestone. The wine is aged as per the regular Barolo, in pre-used large Slavonian oak botti only. The vines are now 55 years old. The extra clay in the soils gives the wine a deeper colour and darker fruit profile than the slightly less heavy soils of Bricco Fiasco.