2020 Elio Grasso Barolo Chiniera

From 35-year-old vines and boasting a jeweled red color, the 2020 Barolo Gavarini Chiniera is ripe and fruity on the nose, with a lot of spice to balance it out, revealing notes of baked red cherries, leather, toasted cedar, pine, and menthol. Medium-bodied, it offers a lot of freshness on the palate, with fine, approachable tannins and good, even freshness and acidity. Compared to the Case Mate, it has a more linear feel and offers a clean stony texture and more orange citrus fruit. It feels very balanced, and while it has a stamp of oak spice, it’s well-integrated. Give this another six months or so in bottle and drink it over the next 15 or more years. (Drink between 2025-2040)