2018 Covalli Barolo

2018 Covalli Barolo

2018 Covalli Barolo Bright, ripe red fruit with some nutty elements on the nose and palate. Some nutmeg, too. Medium to full body with crisp, spicy fruit flavor, unobtrusive tannins and a clean, spicy finish. Drink from 2023. 92pts

Bright ruby center with garnet overtones at the rim. The nose opens to aromas of candied raspberry, red cherry, and black tea. With classic rose petal and faint tar notes, this wine shows the clean, pretty side of Nebbiolo. Mouth-filling and juicy on the palate, with a detailed structure, the wine seems to expand in all directions, offering a gorgeous cigar tobacco note on the finish. Drink 2023- 2033.

Barolo is a wine that can be profound and exhilarating. It’s also a wine that can be restrained and unyielding. Which one you’ll get is not always easy to determine. We know most good Barolos needs years of bottle age to reach an ideal stage of drinkablity, but often we don’t have the time or patience to wait and we end up being disappointed by a wine that’s just not ready to drink. Well we’re here to say that we found a Barolo that will NOT disappoint. It’s ready to drink right now and it delivers.

We tasted the 2018 Covalli Barolo yesterday and we were floored bu how good it is for the money. This is the 5th vintage of the wine we have offered and it just keeps getting better and better. Barolo this good at the price does not, I repeat, does not exist. There is a lot of Barolo under $30 out there, but none of them hold a candle to this wine. With 40% off, 92 from Decanter, this is a no-brainer buy, landing it alongside 2018s from estates like Diego Conterno, Mauro Molino, and Fontanafredda. You’ll be licking your lips all the way to the bank.

The grapes in the Covalli Barolo hail from some of Italy’s most famous hillsides, including southern and southwestern exposures in Monforte d’Alba and La Morra, sharing real estate with Barolo’s top wines, including Bruno Giacosa, Oddero, and Giacomo Conterno. While not thought of as a blue chip, Covalli is a methodically crafted and finely polished entry point to the category—Barolo in the traditionalist style—made from first-rate fruit. The color is a perfect garnet with glints of tangerine and rust. The nose pops with rose petals and walnuts and draws you in toward a candied cherry core.

The winery uses massive old Slavonian oak barrels that allow subtle earthy flavors like dried porcini and bone broth to develop in the wine without getting overpowered by the influence of newly toasted wood. And they let the grapes macerate long enough to extract those fine-grained skin tannins that create a gently chewy texture (a Barolo telltale that is synonymous with world class quality) after a couple years in the bottle. The result is a wine of structure, finesse, and beauty that is ready to drink right now. Highly recommending this for any lover of Barolo. Again, quality this good at this price simply does not exist.