La Spinetta Barolo Campe 2018

As always, this shows loads of dried flowers and dried peaches and persimmons; it’s a ripe and unique wine. A cascade of tannins follows, enveloping the mouth in chewy sensations from top to bottom, flanked in dried-berry flavors. Full-bodied and dense, but agile and inviting. Drink from 2026.

The Campè vineyard is above Garretti in Grinzane Cavour. La Spinetta's 2016 Barolo Campè Vürsù draws its fruit from the upper part of the vineyard where the topsoils are shallow and the vines are oldest, aged 70+ years. Fruit comes from a three-hectare site with beautiful southern exposures. This beautiful wine opens to a velvety and dark appearance with dark garnet highlights. To the nose, it produces dark primary fruit with dried blackberry and plum, but you also get savory notes of spice, tar and dried licorice root. The wine shows a firm backbone, but the tannins are nicely tucked into the greater fiber and power of the mouthfeel.

Raspberry and violet aromas are augmented by wild herb notes of juniper and thyme, plus a hint of tobacco, in this tightly knit red. Elegant and firmly structured, with a long aftertaste of macerated fruit and savory. Decant now or age for a few years. Best from 2022 through 2040.

Fragrant blue flower, menthol and a hint of exotic spice aromas come together on this firmly structured wine. The elegant palate still needs to fully open up but already reveals ripe Marasca cherry, crushed raspberry, white pepper and a hint of orange peel alongside firm, polished tannins. Drink after 2018–2023.