2019 G.D. Vajra Barolo Ravera

Full bottle 1,326 g. Certified organic (Ecocert), sustainable (SQNPI). The soil here is differentiated by the presence of tiny, black manganese conglomerates and iron oxide – the soil has white layers with red stripes (‘the lasagne effect’), according to Giuseppe Vajra. It's in an 'amphitheatre' which creates a specific microclimate. 28-day spontaneous fermentation with submerged-cap maceration. Aged 28 months in 25-hl and 50-hl Slavonian oak. Bottled 25 July 2022. A tightly coiled wine with bold, bittersweet mid-palate juiciness tucked deeply into wide, strong, mineral-dense tannins. It smells of an abandoned stone quarry in the first milk-and-iron light of a winter morning. Tannins which feel like super-fine-grade sandpaper. Darjeeling tea and chestnuts, tart cherry, crushed green caraway leaves. The finish is compact, dry and susurrant. After 48 hours of being open (literally, no cork in the bottle for 48 hours), the defensive astringent rasp of the tannins had settled deep into the wine, like the groove of sax and brass into the coffee-stained damsons of late-night blues. If you're drinking this wine before it's a decade old, open it the day before and leave the decanter in a cool, dark place. It's so beautiful but it responds like a medieval fortress to being opened – you'll need to lure that drawbridge open. (TC)