2020 Azelia Bricco Fiasco Barolo 750 ml

The old saying is that you want to be ahead of your time, but not too much. 

Azelia? Well, they’re “a producer who, unlike most, seemed to have an insight into where Barolo was going, long before the rest,” in the words of Vinous Italian-reviewer Eric Guido. Now that the world’s tastes have caught up to Azelia’s style, the sky is the limit.

So what does Azelia do so well? Simply put, they take superb holdings and old vines in some of Barolo’s most treasured crus and produce wines that transmit that terroir with purity and elegance. That seems relatively straightforward today, but in the 1990s it got Azelia lumped in with the most extreme modernist Barolo Boys (the Scavino name helped with that, too). But the nuance and sophistication that Luigi Scavino operated with made them an outlier in that camp as well—neither fish nor fowl.

Yet among sommeliers and writers, Azelia developed a fervent following. Wine Advocate declared “Proprietor Luigi Scavino doesn’t get anywhere near the attention he deserves, but make no mistake about it, his top Barolos play in the same league with Piedmont’s elite bottlings.” But not also “These are among my favorite wines to drink.”

As the estate moved away from barrique use on their Barolos as the 2000s progressed, they became, in effect, secret traditionalists—with much in common with some of the most grand names in the Piedmont in both terroir and execution.

Bricco Fiasco is their most storied wine, from a site that’s a monopole of the Scavino family (Paolo Scavino’s Bric dël Fiasc is another landmark wine). It’s a classic Castiglione Falletto site, which Vinous rates as "Outstanding" and notes “Barolos from Fiasco have proven to be extremely ageworthy, beginning with Scavino's 1978 Bric del Fiasc, which is fabulous, even after all these years.”

Azelia's vines come from a small, 2.5 hectare holding of old, old vines—the average age here is 85 years—and they perform magic with the results, producing wines that are captivating and delicious young without sacrificing the ability to age for decades. 2020 was a warm, delightful vintage in Barolo, which played into their hands perfectly.