Old Name, New Gear

It’s a tale as old as time: an established producer makes changes to their winemaking practices, and the results hugely impact what you taste in the glass. Bordeaux and Burgundy are currently seeing a wave of this, with various levels of media attention and interpretations of the changes. Separately, a new set of Barolo producers has landed on critics’ radars. Among them is Paolo Scavino, which is also one of those wineries that overhauled their production methods, and thus their house style. The transformation took decades, and the magnificent new releases from this century-old, highly lauded producer prove that even old dogs can learn—and stun with—new tricks. 

Since their founding in 1921, Paolo Scavino has acquired and meticulously farmed over 30 hectares across 20 historic crus in Barolo. For most of their history, Scavino’s wines were stylistically old school and rustic to the point of being, shall we say, not for every palate. Such a style, in a world where Barolo as a region didn’t command nearly the attention or prices that it does today, made it a struggle at times to sell their wines. Flash forward to the late 1980s, when third generation winemaker Enrico Scavino began a decades-long process of modernizing the vineyard and winery operations. And now in 2023, helmed by the fourth generation of Scavinos (Enrica and Elisa), they’re making stunning, modern, and affordable explorations of Barolo’s myriad terroirs. 

If you look closely at the last 3 vintages of Scavino—2 of which were not especially easy, either—you’ll notice strong scores and reviews across all of them. It’s one thing to hit big in an outstanding vintage like 2016, but also in “difficult” years too? That’s one way to sort the good from the great producers. After this streak, the world’s two most important critics are both on the Paolo Scavino bandwagon. While Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate and Vinous have not released their 2019 ratings just yet, we’re obviously optimistic about what’s on the horizon. In the meantime, we’ve included a set of ratings that we think are a strong guide for what’s to come! 

We start with 2 of Scavino’s newer offerings: Prapò and Ravera. Both are tremendous additions to the estate’s portfolio, which are unfortunately only made in tiny quantities. As a result, we only have tiny quantities to offer you today. Another newish bottling (since 2007) is the Monvigliero, which is also in that same tier of scarcity. Thankfully, we’re able to offer both the youthful Bricco Ambrogio and the flagship Bric dël Fiasc in quantity today. The latter is the estate’s star bottling, which put them on the global wine map 30 years ago, and still remains a powerhouse wine that Barolo lovers fawn over. We certainly do, and will bet that you do as well.