Roagna - Barolo Pira Vecchie Viti 2018 (750ml)
Wine Spectator: 98 Points
Delivers depth and a complex texture even if this feels a little reserved today. Taut and energetic with vibrant acidity and dense velvety tannins framing the cherry rose hip wild strawberry and dried herb flavors. Ends with a salty mineral element and chalky feel. Best from 2027 through 2048. 224 cases made.
Vinous: 96 Points
The 2018 Barolo Pira Vecchie Viti is hauntingly beautiful. Sweet dried red cherry mint sweet pipe tobacco white pepper orange peel cinnamon spicecake. This ethereal light to medium-bodied Barolo is incredibly beguiling and distinctive. It's a classic Roagna wine and a fabulous effort in this very challenging year. - By Antonio Galloni on September 2023 This is a stellar set of wines from Luca Roagna. The 2018 Barbarescos and Barolos are especially fine. Roagna waited it out choosing to harvest as late as possible in order to ripen the tannins. As a result a number of the wines have distinctly exotic profiles. I tasted the entire range twice and found the wines consistently brilliant. These are wines that benefit considerably from cellaring something I have learned over the two decades-plus I have been buying and drinking them. As has been the case for some time Roagna has reduced the time in wood for the Barolos and Barbarescos preferring more neutral vessels for the final portion of aging. As always low-intervention viticulture and super-traditional methods with ambient fermentations and long time on the skins are cornerstones of the approach here.
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