Top-tier Barolo cru “in perfect stride” right now
- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
2011 Giovanni Sordo Ravera Barolo 750 ml
- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
The Barolo Insiders’ Grand Cru Site
A few decades ago, Ravera was possibly the ultimate insiders’ Barolo vineyard. Cool and rocky, it was the local pride of the village of Novello, producing stern, structured wines that often required decades to unfold—and were incredible once they did.
But now that warm vintages have become more the norm, Ravera’s wines are much more approachable and balanced in their youth. These days, it’s an undisputed Grand Cru site, as evidenced by the FOUR 100-point scores from Antonio Galloni in Vinous over the last decade. Prices for Ravera wines regularly hit $250.
But the family-owned estate of Giovanni Sordo flies under the radar, despite their high quality and fantastic wines, and their Ravera is an absolute bargain at its full $75 price. In the warm 2011 vintage, they excelled, using Ravera’s perfect exposure and higher elevation to preserve finesse and elegance that perfectly complement the bold fruit and muscular personality of the year. After careful fermentation followed by aging in large, traditional botti, Sordo released a beautiful and ageworthy wine into the world.
Normally that would be the end of that—this wine would be spoken for, and knowledgeable collectors would be pulling it out for special occasions. But our Master Sommelier Sur Lucero has connections in the Piedmont that the rest of us can only envy, and he secured a tiny parcel straight from the winery’s cellars. This is drinking beautifully now, displaying the kind of aromatics that only aged Barolo can provide. It’ll age for another decade, and we recommend enjoying a bottle or two every year, for as long as they last.