Edizione 2012

Barolo 2008: 88
Medium red. Cherry, raspberry, menthol and flowers on the fresh, aromatic nose. A sweet red fruit bomb in the mouth, but with slightly aggressive acidity giving the back end a tart edge. Just a touch green but fresh and pure. Serve it now with food or wait three to five years. The Revello brothers cut back on their cru production in 2008, declassifying a lot of fruit into this bottling.

Barolo Vigna Gattera 2008: 90
(the only Revello Barolo aged in 10-hectoliter Slavonian casks, none new): Good bright, deep red. Deep aromas of dark fruits, menthol and licorice. Sweet and silky but quite firm, with sound acidity giving cut to the dense dark fruit and licorice flavors. Nicely ripe but with a brooding medicinal qualty and powerful backbone. This will need patience.

Barolo Vigna Giachini 2008: 91
Good deep red. Reticent nose hints at minerals; seems less floral than usual for this bottling. Deep, rich and powerful on the palate, but youthfully brooding today and dominated by its structure. Not dry but a bit tough, with medicinal black cherry and brown spice flavors currently cut off by the wine's strong backbone. This classically built Barolo calls for seven or eight years in the cellar.

Barolo Vigna Conca 2008: 92
(from a 1954 planting): Good deep, bright red. Very ripe, enticing aromas of black raspberry and menthol. Sweet, dense and silky, with a tactile, 3-D texture. Fat, rich and powerful. This outsized Barolo finishes with big palate-dusting tannins that will require patience. From a very warm, protected amphitheater vineyard that routinely produces a fatter style of wine, a good thing in 2008.

Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata 2008: 93
(just four barriques of this juice, two of them new): Good full red. Musky black raspberry, currant, cocoa powder and brown spices on the perfumed nose and palate. Lush, sweet and aromatic in the mouth, with high alcohol nicely leavened by harmonious acidity. Very densely packed wine, finishing with sweet, finegrained tannins and excellent length. This should be long-lived.

Barolo 2007: 90
($44) Good deep medium red. Expressive, ripe nose offers plum, marzipan and leather. Fleshy, rich and chewy, with elevated alcohol and plenty of warm plum, leather and loam flavors. The broad finish features substantial dusty tannins. Carlo Revello notes that the 2007s are better to drink now than the 2008s, which "have great noses but are not yet full." Incidentally, he's very high on vintage 2009, which he describes as "

Barolo Vigna Gattera 2007: 90
($58) Good full red. Very ripe aromas of plum, redcurrant, chocolate and menthol. Fat and sweet but a bit monolithic. Shows the high alcohol of the vintage. Finishes with drying tannins and hints of medicinal black cherry and licorice. Revello describes this bottling as "an intermediate wine between our normale and the Giachini; it's not a premier cru." He added that the best Gatteras are made by Paolo Cordero di Montezemolo, Mauro Veglio and Bovio.

Barolo Vigna Giachini 2007: 93
($70) Good deep red. Expressive, come-hither aromas of dark raspberry, flowers, spices and graphite minerality. Powerful, lush, sweet and deep, with a distinctly open-knit texture. This is 14.5% alcohol, vs. 15+% for the other 2007 Barolos here. Dense, sweet and very long, finishing with ripe tannins, a note of licorice and palate-staining length.

Barolo Vigna Conca 2007: 92
($78) (as with the Gattera and Vigna Giachini, this was aged in 50% new barriques): Good deep red. Aromas of black raspberry, violet, mint, licorice and tobacco. Deep, layered and rich, with terrific concentration to its dark fruit, violet and oak flavors. A bit aggressive following the Vigna Giachini, but the wine's sheer thickness of texture is leavened by ripe acidity. Finishes with big, broad, ripe, palate-dusting tannins, considerable power and a hint of warmth.

Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata 2007: 93
($115) Good deep, dark red with ruby tones. Superripe aromas of cherry, licorice and chocolatey oak. Fleshy, sweet and thick, displaying considerable baby fat but a bit less mineral lift than usual for this cru. Stuffed with cherry, redcurrant and cinnamon flavor but a bit warm on the finish, with some wood tannins showing. This is more full-blown than the 2008, without the later vintage's precision, and will be for earlier drinking.

Edizione 2009

Barolo Vigna Gattera 2006: 93
Good deep red. Cherry, red berries, menthol and a whiff of marzipan on the nose and palate. Firm, harmonious acidity gives this wine lovely vinosity and elegance, with an enticing minerality adding complexity. This is riper and sweeter than the 2005-more glyceral-but has excellent energy. In fact, it's still a bit youthfully compressed. Carlo Revello noted that the estate increased the quality of its crus by declassifying a good bit of fruit in '06, but that this move was done "due to the market." This is the only Barolo here that's made in larger barrels.

Barolo Vigna Conca 2006: 92
Bright, deep red. Dark fruits, licorice and tobacco on the nose. Sappy and sweet, with lovely ripe acidity giving the palate a penetrating quality. Distinctly suppler and less tannic than the Giachini. Finishes with subtle, earthy soil tones.

Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata 2006: 94
(14.8% alcohol, with 5.23 g/l acidity and a pH of 3.55) Deep, bright ruby-red. Brooding, pure aromas of black cherry, licorice and sweet spices. Then almost surprisingly lush and sweet in the mouth, with a very fine-grained texture to the complex flavors of black cherry, spices and soy sauce. Offers impressive volume without weight, with the impression of ripeness and thickness building as the wine opens in the glass. Finishes very suave, sweet and long. This big boy hasn't shut down yet.

Barolo Vigna Giachini 2006: 90
Deep red-ruby color. More chocolate and coffee from the oak to go with aromas of black fruits and licorice. Then densely packed but a bit clenched, with the 50% new barrique element quite apparent today. Intriguing hint of marzipan. Less obviously sweet than the Gattera, and finishing with a stronger impression of oak tannins. There was a bit of hail in this vineyard in 2006.

Barolo 2006: 90
Good deep red. Aromas of black cherry, tobacco and marzipan. At once silky and lively on the palate, with an almost candied quality to the strawberry and violet flavors. Firm acidity and a balsamic nuance give this wine good lift and energy. Aged entirely in barriques, 20% new. A very successful basic Barolo.

Barolo Vigna Gattera 2005: 92
($60; aged in a blend of 20-hectoliter Austrian casks and tonneaux; the rest of the Revello Barolo crus are aged in barriques, about 40% new) Complex nose melds cherry, plum, tar, coffee, mocha, cedar and tobacco; like an essence of Barolo. Then silky, sweet and nicely balanced, with a distinctly velvety middle given definition by good energy. Finishes with very suave tannins and lovely grip.

Barolo Vigna Conca 2005: 91
($75) Good bright, dark red. Sexy, soil-driven aromas of raspberry, minerals, coffee and underbrush. Rich but youthfully unforthcoming, hinting at a slightly exotic quality to its dark plum and floral elements. Finishes with serious toothdusting tannins and lovely persistence. This needs time but should reward patience.

Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata 2005: 93
($105) Good deep red. Sexy, subtle perfume of strawberry, raspberry, underbrush, coffee and minerals complemented by nutty oak. Lush and silky but at the same time delineated and vibrant; this boasts impressive inner-mouth aromatic lift for such a ripe, sweet wine. Just as lush and seamless on the back end, which features suave, ripe tannins and captivating lingering sweetness. (Marc de Grazia; numerous importers, including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; Robert Houde Wines, Bensenville, IL; and Estate Wines Ltd., San Rafael, CA).

Barolo Vigna Giachini 2005: 90
($70) Good deep red. Less primary and fruity on the nose than the Gattera, showing coffee, mocha and chocolatey oak. Sweet on entry, then more closed in the middle, with youthfully subdued flavors of plum and chocolate; I don't yet find the floral quality typical of this bottling. Finishes with broad, building tannins but also very good breadth and sweetness.

Barolo 2005: 89
($46; done in barriques, 20% new) Moderately saturated medium red. Plum, mocha and nutty oak on the nose. Sweet, pliant and accessible, but with the inner-palate energy and lift of the better 2005s. An enticing raspberry flavor carries through to the finish, which shows rather gentle tannins and good persistence. This is mostly from younger vines, averaging about 20 years of age.