2017 Paolo Scavino Barolo 'Ravera' DOCG

After a fairly rainy autumn, the winter was quite mild, characterized by not very low temperatures, little rainfall and no snowfall. 
With rather high average temperatures in the months of January, February and March, the vines had a very early spring awakening. The first green peaks appeared 15 days earlier than in a normal year and the vegetative lengthening was rather rapid.
 

An unusual event took place from 19th to 24th April. For four consecutive nights there was a sharp drop in temperatures. These spring frosts have seriously damaged some vineyards: the lower part of the Altenasso vineyard, which we call Pontetto, planted with white vines, the Annunziata vineyard, the lower part of the Pernanno vineyard, the Vignolo vineyard and most of the young vine plants used for replacements.
 

After this anomalous event the temperatures stabilized immediately and, in the vineyards not affected by frost, the vegetative elongation was very rapid.
 

In May we had 54 mm of rain which fell over 12 days with above average maximum temperatures. Nebbiolo begins flowering around the middle of the month and with maximum temperatures in the last week of May close to 30 °C, fruit setting begins regularly. The closing of the bunch is quickly reached around mid-June, the month in which only 42 mm of rain were recorded with maximum temperatures in the last two weeks ranging between 30 and 35 °C.
 

In the second week of July, the Dolcetto and Barbera grapes are at 5% veraison while the Nebbiolo begin around mid-month. Finally, on July 29th, a nice thunderstorm arrives and 44 mm of rain are recorded.
 

In the first week of August the maximum temperatures are record-breaking and there is basically no rainfall throughout the month. In this unusual drought situation, the thinning of the grapes is well targeted.
 

The harvests of the early ripening varieties begin towards the 25th of August while we started the Nebbiolo harvest on 12th September. At the beginning of September, we had approximately 20 mm of rain. The picking of the grapes ends quite quickly. It is a year that will be remembered for the low rainfall, from 500 to 550 mm depending on the vineyard, despite this the quality of the grapes was excellent and few vineyards showed water stress.
 

More than ever, in 2017, the choice of harvest was determined by the sampling that we repeat for each vineyard at least 3 times, one week apart. Sampling consists in the collection of a significant number of berries, representative of the entire vineyard, which are analyzed to evaluate the trend of sugars, acidity and pH.
Throughout the summer, despite the lack of water and high temperatures, the vines surprisingly showed no signs of stress. The vegetation remained green and luxuriant until the beginning of September. The energy was made available to the shoots and the clusters had moderate growth, with low yields.
 

During the second sampling we noticed that the plants began to resist the destemming. To make up for the lack of water in the soil, the plant began to recover it from the berries. So we decided not to wait any longer and to start the harvest, picking the most urgent vines first.
 

The sudden start of the harvest wanted to avoid not so much a loss of must as the loss of freshness of the fruit and the balance reached up to that point. We did not want to run into an over-ripening of the fruit and an excess of concentration. The acidity at the harvest was rather contained but stable thanks to the absence of rain which, before harvesting, would have brought a lot of potassium into circulation with a consequent drop of acidity.
 

There are several distinctive characteristics in the 2017s Barolo. It is the charm and elegance that immediately come to mind when tasting this wine. A very fine, floral and fruity nose is followed by a very smooth and caressing mouth where the tannins are perfectly ripe. Despite the dry and sunny summer conditions of this vintage, this wine has retained all of its acid potential, the beginnings of fabulous aging. 

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