Paolo Scavino
Barolo, Castiglione Falletto, Piedmont, Italy
I met Enrico Scavino at Christie's in New York in 2004 when he came to New York with his eldest daughter, Enrica, to introduce the 2000 Bric dël Fiasc. They were in town to pour it at the Wine Spectator grand tasting as they had scored it 98 points, and I had the privilege to sit down with them for a lunch and a tasting I still remember to this day.
Enrico had every reason to spend that lunch talking about the wine and that incredible the score. However, he spent it on his family, on the land his father had farmed, and on the history of Castiglione Falletto and the villages around it. He was generous with his time and his passion was infectious. That lunch was my introduction to the estate, and his love of Barolo and Piedmont has never left me.
A few years later, while I was in Las Vegas Enrica came through town and it was wonderful to talk about that lunch and enjoy some of her wines and others. In what felt like a full circle, Mattia Benevello, who runs Scavino's export, sat down with me over four 2021 Barolos in magnum.
We talked about the wine and the family, because at Scavino you cannot separate the two. Enrico was passionate about every one of the 20 crus he worked, and he made it his mission to make wine in a way that let each one show what it was. That is why every Scavino Barolo is made exactly the same way: the same fermentation, the same eight to ten days on the skins, the same large casks. Hold the cellar still, and the only thing left to taste is the ground.
Enrico also designed his own fermenter for the cru Barolos, and Mattia explained it with a teabag. An iron net holds the skins under the wine while the wine moves through them. The skins never break, so the extraction stays gentle and still goes deep.
Ravera came first. It is the family's highest vineyard, up in Novello, and thirty years ago it struggled to ripen. Warmer summers have put flesh behind its cool, herbal style, and Mattia's line on it stuck with me. Not every change is a bad change.
The second wine came with a story about loss. For 33 years the family rented a parcel of Cannubi, one of the most famous names in Barolo and the only vineyard they ever leased. In 2018 the owner died without direct heirs and the lease ended. “Carobric”, their blend of Cannubi, Rocche dell'Annunziata and Bric dël Fiasc, ended with it. That same year they bought into Bussia, in Monforte, at the highest point of the cru and the only part of it on sand. Bussia usually means power. The 2021 Vigna Fantini, its first vintage, was about lift.
Prapò is the family's corner of Serralunga d'Alba, under a hectare on a steep slope that runs off the Cerretta hill. Serralunga makes Barolo's most powerful wines. Here the exposure ripens the fruit fully, so the power arrives with flesh on it.
Bric dël Fiasc came last. It sits beside the cellar at the center of the zone, and Mattia drew a circle around it on the map, three or four kilometers wide. Cannubi, Cerequio, Brunate, Rocche dell'Annunziata, Villero, Monprivato and Rocche di Castiglione all fell inside it. The family has owned the vineyard since the estate began in 1921. In 1978 Enrico and his father bottled it alone for the first time, when most Barolo was still a blend of villages. It was the wine Enrico and Enrica carried to New York in 2004.
Enrico died in 2024. Tasting those 2021s, I kept thinking about how proud he would be. Enrica and Elisa have worked beside him for over twenty years, and they are doing what he did. They hold the cellar to his method, they keep pushing to make better wine, and they are building something to hand to the next generation.
A private visit to Paolo Scavino is not a tasting room stop. Visits are by appointment only and built around the land, the vineyards and the table. You taste the crus side by side, all made the same way, so every difference in the glass comes from the ground. You stand at the fermenter Enrico designed and see the net that keeps the skins under the wine. Then you walk out to Bric dël Fiasc, next to the cellar, the vineyard the family has owned since 1921.
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FROM THE CELLAR
2021 Barolo Ravera, Paolo Scavino (Novello). About three hectares at 430 meters, facing east, and the last vineyard the family picks every year. Sant'Agata marl with a strong streak of limestone. Balsamic, menthol, sage and white pepper over red fruit, with cool mineral tannin and high acid. The freshness holds even in hot years, which is why demand for Ravera has climbed for fifteen years.
2021 Barolo Bussia Vigna Fantini, Paolo Scavino, (Monforte d'Alba). About 450 meters, the highest of Bussia's twelve sub zones, with vines planted between 2006 and 2010. Elisa treats the block as experimental because of the genetic mix in the vines, Nebbiolo Rosé among them. Menthol, blood orange, spearmint, dried cherry and lilac over refined, almost austere tannin.
2021 Barolo Prapò, Paolo Scavino, Nebbiolo (Serralunga d'Alba). 370 meters, facing south and southeast, replanted in 2010 with a massal selection chosen for loose clusters and low yields. Iron-rich sand over gray marl gives the wine its rusty mineral edge. Plum, licorice, dark chocolate, graphite and iron, with full Serralunga tannin. Only a handful of producers bottle Prapò.
2021 Barolo Bric dël Fiasc, Paolo Scavino, Nebbiolo (Castiglione Falletto). The family farms about a third of the small Fiasco cru, on vines planted in 1979, 1984 and 2009, where limestone and sandstone cross and iron-rich water rises from deep underground. Dark cherry, iron, dried herbs, white pepper, orange peel and geranium, with broad tannin and real perfume on top.
MV Vino Rosso, Paolo Scavino, Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto and Merlot (Piedmont). To keep the Barolos strict, the family holds back the fruit of its younger vines, and this is where that fruit goes. The blend breaks the appellation rules, so it carries the simplest label in Italy, table wine. Stainless steel only, no oak, made in tiny quantities. Red cherry, violet and spice, juicy and supple. A wine for any night of the week from the house that bottled Bric dël Fiasc in 1978.
Langhe Nebbiolo, Paolo Scavino, Nebbiolo (La Morra). Two single vineyards in La Morra, Bricco Manescotto, planted in 1960 and 1968, and Annunziata, planted in 1997. It is the one wine in the cellar made differently from the Barolos, on purpose. A cool, gentle fermentation, five days on the skins, then eight months in neutral oak. Crushed flowers, red cherry, blood orange and dried herbs over a fine, lifted tannin. It is the bottle winemakers and their teams in Barolo open on an ordinary night.