Monchiero Montanello Barolo 2020

Double success for Barolo in this year’s DWWA Best In Show selection – and both wines, significantly, hail from the ‘lockdown’ vintage of 2020. It was a propitious one, especially for those drinkers who enjoy classicism, delicacy and proportion in their bottles of Barolo. This limpid, translucent, rose-red wine sums up that style admirably. It is genuinely fragrant on the nose, with scent layers of strawberry, pomegranate, rose and rosehip. On the palate, the wine fills the mouth with a flood of intense fruit and floral flavours. They then transform as you grow aware of the wine’s defining tannins and curranty acidity; that transformation takes the spectrum of analogy down towards earth, humus and wild mushroom. Remarkable force of personality, yet sketched out in an impressively gentle and tender style. Score – 97. (Decanter World Wine Awards, 2024)