Barolo Baudana

Baudana, Luigi
Italy
Piedmont
2019

The cru of Baudana can seem undersung compared to more famous sites, but in the recent past it was not so. “This vineyard has contributed to creating excellent signature wines since the 1930s and has always been held in high esteem by the locals”--Atlante delle Vigne di Langa, Slow Food, 1990.  It was also singled out in Renato Ratti's now widely-cited 1970 map of the Barolo zone's best vineyards.  Soils are a combination of the bluish-gray Tortonian-era Sant'Agata Fossili marls and the older whitish-yellow Formazione di Lequio from the Serravallian epoch.  This tends to give a wine with the depth and power one associates with Serralunga, but with a gentler tannin structure, perhaps reminiscent of the wines of Barolo and La Morra. 

The Vairas farm 1.6ha of Baudana, SW-facing at 350m. Vines for the Barolo Baudana are the oldest, planted in 1960. Fermentation is in open-top wood vats with manual punchdowns.  Macerations, cappello sommerso (submerged cap) lasted 45 days. Aging was in neutral 1500L, 1700L, and 2500L Slavonian oak botti, for 30 months, followed by at least 8 months of bottle aging. Unfined/unfiltered. 5,000 bottles made.

 

96 points
"The 2019 Barolo Baudana is absolutely captivating. Effusive and bright in the glass, with tons of freshness and remarkable fruit purity, the Baudana offers up generous dark red fruit, spice, leather, kirsch, hard candy, cedar, tobacco and underbrush. There's terrific depth here and exceptional balance, too. Rose petal, white pepper and chalk lift the high-toned, intensely saline finish. "
Antonio Galloni,
Vinous Media
November 2022
96 points
"“This wine is harmonious right out of the gate, offering a youthful energy and appeal that is surprising for a Barolo from Serralunga. There’s plenty of power in the cool, polished tannins, but the wine’s flavors of cherry, raspberry and blood orange create a mouthwatering sensation of fruit picked at exactly the right moment."
Stephanie Johnson,
Wine & Spirits
Fall 2023
95 points
"Pressed rose, small red berry, camphor and spice aromas mingle together on this lovely red. Made with 50-year old vines, it’s firm but elegantly structured, delivering spiced cranberry, blood orange, star anise and clove alongside fresh acidity and tightly woven tannins. "
Kerin O’Keefe,
kerinokeefe.com
February 2023
94 points
"The 2019 Barolo Baudana offers good power and ripeness with sweet fruit flavors, dark cherry, spice and ferrous earth. These aromas are characteristic of this site in Serralunga d'Alba. The wine is silky and generous on the palate, with salty minerality on the close. On a scale of growing intensity, Baudana generally comes after the Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d'Alba and before the Barolo Cerretta in this portfolio of three wines."
Monica Larner,
Wine Advocate
August 2023
93 points
"The 2019 Barolo takes on more Serralunga richness with an air of licorice spice and red cherry liqueur. Medium to full-bodied, it offers ripe tannins a well as a note of ripe raspberries and is lush with dark mineral soil and a long finish. Allow this another couple of years and drink over the following 10."
Audrey Frick,
JebDunnuck.com
May 2023
92 points
"Note of ground spices, nut shell and cedar with subtle aromas of red fruit in the background. Medium-bodied, structured and firm. Chewy and lightly austere in the finish. "
James Suckling,
JamesSuckling.com
July 2023

SKU/Code: 
DB3271-19
Product Line: 
Wine
Red
Varietal: 
Nebbiolo
Farming Type: 
Organic