SommSelect Editorial Director David Lynch gets ruminative when great old Barolo is on the table. Who doesn’t? This well-aged bottle is in amazing condition and represents unparalleled value.
Something very particular happens to me when I drink a serious, well-aged Barolo like this one. I’m transported to the library I wish I actually had, one that’s full of old books and heavy furniture and burnished woods. There’s a pipe on a nearby tray and I’m jotting my thoughts in a leather-bound journal in between contemplative sips. What a worldly sophisticate I am! And all it took was a (quite affordable) bottle of 2004 Barolo from Azelia. The aromas and flavors of this profound wine hint at well-seasoned wood and pipe tobacco and other sensations a tweedy country squire such as myself find intoxicating. And while you may not be transported to this exact same place, you’ll be transported somewhere. Great, physically sound red wine like this—from a landmark vintage, no less—is an experience every wine lover must have. And Barolo, remarkably, continues to provide such transport at truly affordable prices. This is a bigger, bolder red than a great red Burgundy from a similarly great vintage, yet it is exponentially less expensive. World-class appellation and producer, legendary vintage, perfect storage…need I say more?
As Barolo lovers know, the Azelia winery is one branch of the Scavino family, whose roots in the village of Castiglione Falletto go back generations. Azelia’s proprietor, Luigi Scavino, splits ownership of two top Barolo vineyards—“Bricco Fiasco,” in Castiglione Falletto, and “San Rocco,” in nearby Serralunga—with his cousin, Enrico, who runs the neighboring Paolo Scavino winery (their respective fathers divided the family holdings back in the 1950s). Both properties are known for wines that meld “traditional” and “modern” winemaking techniques, with rich, layered textures and long aging capabilities. Azelia has perhaps lagged behind Paolo Scavino in terms of international recognition, which works to our advantage in terms of pricing; qualitatively, these wines have always been completely on point, and favorites of sommeliers because of the value they offer.
Today’s wine is Azelia’s “base” Barolo bottling, sourced from an assortment of vineyards in Castiglione Falletto and Serralunga. Farming is done sustainably, with no chemical fertilizers added to the soil and harvest conducted by hand. The Scavinos make reference to a ‘rotofermenter’ being used during maceration/primary fermentation—this is a device that works a little like a cement mixer, keeping juice and skins in constant contact and enabling the winemaker to shorten the overall maceration time (Azelia’s is said to be 20 days, which is on the short side, enabling them to retain a little more color while still extracting ample tannin). After fermentation, the wine was aged 24 months in large, “neutral” oak vats and one year in bottle before release.
This 2004, shipped directly from the winery to its West Coast importer, is in phenomenal shape; there’s still a hint of the tannic brawn and dense fruit of its youth, but it has taken on a beautiful patina with age. In the glass it’s garnet-red with significant “bricking” at the rim, with the heady, perfumed aromatics that distinguish great old Barolo from any other wine in the world: dried black cherry, black currant, orange peel, varnished wood, tobacco, tar, dried rose petals, and oiled leather. Still medium-plus/full-bodied and palate-coating, its tannins have softened considerably but still form a structural frame for the wine. The finish, as you might expect, goes on forever, and I expect this wine still has 5-7 years of peak drinking left. This is not to say that I would wait: decant this about 30 minutes before serving in Burgundy glasses at 60 degrees (keep an eye out for sediment, there will be a little). It needs something gamy/woodsy/earthy as a pairing, and I’m always drawn to braises when a wine like this is on the table. The attached recipe adds the unmistakable “woodsiness” of Porcini mushrooms, which are always welcome with Barolo. But if you decide to drink this slowly, and contemplatively, on its own, in your library…you have my blessing. Cheers!
— D.L.
