Azelia - Barolo, San Rocco, Serralunga d’Alba 2016 12/750ml

Classification

Red

Country

Italy

Producer

Azelia

Farming

Organic

Bottle Size

750ml

Vintage

2016

Bottles/Case

Highlights

• Muscular and energetic, a great example of the Langhe's "skillful soldier"
• Hallmark notes of licorice, spice and dark fruits; ripe and integrated tannins
• 93 points, Vinous Media, 92 James Suckling

Varietals

Nebbiolo

Vineyard

Hillside vineyard in front of the famous San Rocco church; clayey and calcareous soils; vines average 55 years

Farming

Organic

Vinification

Hand-picked, fermented in vertical stainless steel tanks with native yeasts, macerated with submerged cap for 45/50 days, racked by gravity, no fining or filtering

Aging

24 months in small French oak barrels, 10% new

Reviews

• Robert Parker: 95 The Azelia 2016 Barolo San Rocco presents broad and sweeping aromatic brush strokes, and the tannins are pronounced in this wine from Serralunga d'Alba. This is probably the bottle you put at the back of your cellar while the others might occupy a more accessible spot for medium to long-term drinking. There is a shallow midpoint between the intensity of the bouquet and the wine's structured finale, but that mid-palate zone will certainly flesh out with more time in the bottle. This wine earns an extra point for longevity. San Rocco was the first vineyard purchased by Luigi Scavino's father in the early 1990s, and the vines are 65 years old on average today. Some 7,600 bottles were released.

Luigi Scavino's Azelia is celebrating a big milestone this year with its centennial anniversary (1920–2020). Five generations of the family have carried forth this winemaking legacy. To mark the occasion, Azelia is releasing a new single-vineyard wine, the 2016 Barolo Cerretta. In 1992, Luigi and his father Lorenzo started leasing a 2.5-hectare parcel in Cerretta (in Serralunga d'Alba). The father and son team replanted the site completely, installing new trellising poles and wires, and they ripped up the soil and added rainfall drainage. The Scavinos did all this work and made all these investments at great personal cost, since the land lease would expire one day. However, 12 years later, in 2004, the family succeeded in purchasing the parcel. This site is very special to them, as it is the first vineyard created completely from scratch with massal selection by the Scavinos. Initially, the fruit was used in the classic Barolo blend (a blend of seven crus). Now, nearly 30 years later, Cerretta is finally bottled as a single-vineyard wine, just in time to blow out 100 candles on the winery birthday cake.

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