Barolo, Cannubi, 2018

A long lease, first signed in 1985, has now come to an end and this will be the last, and very fitting, end to an important chapter in the Scavino story. This is a wonderful Cannubi, with all the complexity and polish we have come to expect, with an additional transparency and vibrancy to anything that has gone before it. Suave but juicy, salty red and dark berry fruits cloaked in the silkiest of tannins. A little less compact thanusual, wonderful energy and sophistication with strawberry, raspberry cherry and sweet earthy spices mingling seamlessly. There is a solid structure, but the tannins emerge gently and slowly, allowing the fruit to shine. 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 at the top of the hill where the mother rock is close to the surface. Soils are blue marne, limestone and sand. Shallow and rocky with a south-east exposure situated at 290 metres above sea level, this terroir makes for a wine combining silky fruit and powerful 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 *Cannubi” before Barolo as a defined vineyard region even existed.