Silvio Grasso Barolo 2021

Barolo is a wine that can be profound and exhilarating. It’s also a wine that can be restrained and unyielding. We found a Barolo that will NOT disappoint. Barolo this good at $29.99 pretty much does not exist. You might find Barolo under $35 but they tend to terribly tannic, hard and floored. Silvio Grasso makes wines that are refined and balanced, not dominated by oak, rather completed by oak adding complexity and length. The Grasso family have been producing wine since 1927 and his single vineyard wines garner huge press. Todays wine is the 2021 Silvio Grasso Barolo is a blend of the great single vineyards that they own in La Morra where some of the greatest including Bruno Giacosa, Oddero, and Giacomo Conterno make wine and truly has the fruit concentration and depth and length that you normally find in a top Barolo that’s $60 a bottle. 2021 is a vintage that is highly praised by almost all wine critics. The Barolos of the 2021 vintage are strikingly expressive, with a nose that tends towards openness rather than austerity. These wines show the power and ageing potential of great red wines, but without the ponderous extraction of previous years. Placed alongside 2001, 2010, and 2016 as one of the best since the start of the millennium. The vintage got 95-98pts by Wine Spectator and 97pts by Parker’s WA .

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.

Ruby red with purple reflections. Typical, intense, red berries, black cherry. Dry, soft, full-bodied, quite fresh, fruity and pleasant finish. 100% Nebbiolo grown in calcareous clay soils in La Morra. Fermentation lasts 10 days in stainless steel. The wine is then aged in 30-40% new French oak barriques for 24 months, followed by 12 months in bottle before release.

Notes of dried cherries, dried orange peel and hints of cocoa and bark. Medium-bodied, compact and dense with velvety tannins. Shows rich fruit at the end. Delicate and supple. Already drinkable, but better after 2027.