2012 Giacosa Fratelli Canavere Scarrone Vigna Mandorlo Barolo 750 ml

This is the kind of Barolo opportunity that only comes around once every few years. 

A flagship wine of the 128-year Giacosa dynasty, the 2012 Scarrone Vigna Mandorlo Canavere is a single-cru Barolo grown on old Nebbiolo vines in one of the best sites in Castiglione Falletto. 

Hailing from a vintage that Wine Enthusiast Italy expert Kerin O’Keefe called “harmonious and alluring,” it’s starting to come into its own, but shows the structure to age another five years.

This is a winery that began with an extremely unlikely stroke of luck: One summer night in 1895, Giuseppe Giacosa had a dream about the lottery, complete with the numbers. The next day he played them—and won. With the proceeds, this humble sharecropper was now the proud owner of a winery. 

Five generations of Giacosas have since dedicated their lives to the craft of winemaking—and to Nebbiolo, the grape that rules them all in Piedmont. In 2012, Alessandro, Mauro, Lorenzo, and Anna, the great-great-great-grandchildren of Giuseppe Giacosa, captured an excellent vintage in bottle, yielding a stunner that lives up to the family name. 

The soils in the Vigna Mandorlo climat within Scarrone—ancient vines the family bought in 1994—are absolutely optimum for growing phenomenal Nebbiolo. They come from the Oligocene epoch, with grey-blue marlstone alternating with layers of sandstone, and inform a wine that is at once earthy and tarry in character. The 2012 Vigna Mandorlo Riserva adds an additional layer of dried cherries and roses, while also demonstrating the elegance and focus characteristic of the best wines of the vintage.