Description

If you have ever traveled to the Piemonte region in northern Italy, the birth place of the Slow Food movement, then you will know how compelling and well matched Barolo is with the local cucina; risotto, truffles, egg noodles, veal and wild boar, wild mushrooms, hazelnuts, chocolate, and of course the cheeses.  If you haven’t visited the region yet, then consider this Brovia Barolo as very proper homework bottles for now or later.

The 2019 Barolo vintage is a standout!  Many critics and winemakers alike are noting the wines as exemplary and comparing them to the classic and great 2010 vintage.  Almost perfect weather allowed the Nebbiolo extended hang time and slow ripening into mid-October.  The result are wines of great color intensity, aromatic complexity and flavor depth, balanced structure rich in tannins, and freshness as experienced in the long tapered finishes.  Wines you should be able to begin drinking very soon, but capable of evolving over the next 25 years.

Belonging to the very top tier of region’s most collectibles is the difficult to find Barolo of Brovia situated in the heart of the district.  The family has been farming its estate in the village of Castiglione Falletto since the mid-1800s.  Farming is all organic and manual-hands on, and the winemaking very traditional with lengthy macerations.  The Barolo is aged in very large Slavonian and French oak cask for two years.  The wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined, and matured another 18-24 months before release.

“With the cream-colored label, the 2019 Barolo Brea Vigna Ca’ Mia is another standout wine from one of the most collectible producers in the appellation. The wine from vintners Elena Brovia and Alex Sanchez is especially sharp, focused and polished. You get a lot of satisfaction here and sophistication too, with an amazing sense of clarity and depth. Wild berry, cassis, blood orange, iris and campfire ash emerge from the bouquet. There is drying mineral on the silky close. This is one of my favorite wines of the vintage. 2025-2048.” – 98 points, RP-Wine Advocate (ML)

We often call this cru “Il Ruffiano” for its rustic, raffish nature.  This is a boisterous, friendly Barolo from the heart of Serralunga d’Alba with all that zone’s lush fruit and generous body.  Here the wine thrusts us into the dense ambience of the forest: the dark berry-like fruit, the moss and underbrush, the truffles and mushrooms of the Langhe.  It’s all there with bravado and confidence.  Warm, rich, dense … one of our best friends at the table.  This is a one-hectare vineyard planted to Nebbiolo in 1955.  The exposure is southeast and the altitude is 350 meters.  Like the other “cru” Barolo, the “Ca’Mia” experiences a cuvaison of at least 3 weeks before being racked into large French “botti” for two years or more of aging.  Annual production is on the order of 3,500 bottles of which 1,200 (plus 60 magnums) are destined for distribution in the USA. – from importer (Rosenthal)