Barbaresco, Rabaja Bas, 2017

A slightly deeper colour than their regular Barolo, there is depth and mystery to the nose. This gives little away at first but some gentle coercion reveals dark hedgerow and fruits of the forest flavours. As ripe and concentrated as this is, there is also tremendous precision and freshness. Laser-guided tayberry, black cherry, and salt-flecked bramble flavours zip briskly across the palate, building to a long finish that gentle expands into echoing overtones of sweet woody, mulled spices. Confusingly this is a single vineyard in its own right that has nothing to do with the Rabaja. An old vineyard planted in 1942, Rabaja Bas is west facing, (as opposed to south west facing for Rabaja) and sits at the top of the hill above Paje where the soils are poor and limestone-influenced. Fermented in steel tanks as opposed to open wood vats for the other Crus. Aged for 24 months in large used Slavonian oak vats.