Barolo, Ravera,

One of Italy’s great Estates with holdings in Barolos finest Crus, Cannubi, Bric del Fiasc and Rocche dell’Annuziata. Along with Elio Altare, Enrico Scavino is surely responsible for the great reputation Piedmont has today. Since the 1980s he has been crafting benchmark modern Barolo. Through meticulous vineyard work, fermentations and finishing in a mixture of French oak barriques and the larger traditional ‘Botti’ casks, Enrico makes svelte wines whose polish and sophistication enhance rather than shroud their character and typicity. Their flagship must surely be the Bric del Fiasc, one of the earlier examples of a Barolo single vineyard bottling, the first vintage being 1978. It has a sun-blanched south-western exposure and one of the region's most complex soil compositions - a complex mixture of blue grey marne, sand, limestone and redder sandstone - the coming together of the Tortonian soils of La Morra & Barolo and the Helvetian soils of the Serralunga valley. This is a wine the embodies Castiglione: Powerful and long lived, spicy yet with more elegant highlights of bright red fruit. As complete a Barolo as you will find.