Barolo, Cannubi, 2011

Darker than the other Scavino wines but there is a nice definition and zip to it. Brooding, dark, textured, compact berry and mocha flavours with faint aromatic high notes of cherry blossom. Structured and tight knit but very polished and profound, with an incredibly intense, long finish that suggest patience with this wine will be well rewarded. A sleeper. A small parcel from which only 300 cases are produced. This is what the Scavinos call “Cannubi Cannubi”. (Their parcel is at the very heart of the Cannubi vineyard with a limestone and sandy soil and south-east exposure situated at 290 metres above sea level, lending the wine a combination of silky fruit and structure.) The first vintage Scavino bottled was 1985, the vines were planted in 1946 with the low-yielding, darker fruit Nebbiolo michet clone. Cannubi is one of the historic crus of Barolo, in fact such was the fame of the vineyard in the past that wines here were sold as “Cannubio” before Barolo as a defined vineyard region even existed.