Wine Country: Italy

Wine Subregion: Piemonte

Wine Sub-subregion: Barolo

Whether I’m travelling in Piemonte speaking with actual people or lurking on various social media sites where the local wine cognoscenti gather, I always have my radar engaged to hear what wines people are most talking about. There are a lot of very, very good producers, after all, we never or rarely see here in the United States, and I have an intense fear of missing out!   One name I’ve heard on a lot of lips over the past few years is that of Federico Scarzello.  I first caught wind of Scarzello in a wine bar in La Morra where a table of winemakers I knew were casually dissecting a bottle of Scarzello’s 2011 Barolo Sarmassa over their tajarin and the reactions were overwhelmingly positive.  Unfortunately for me, they had emptied the bottle before I managed to park myself at their table and insinuate myself into their conversation.  The next time I heard about Scarzello was in an on-line conversation between some hardcore European Barolo/Barbaresco fans including my old pal Gregory Dal Piaz  (who has forgotten more about Barolo than most of us will ever learn). He listed Scarzello among a shortlist of ‘Old School classic Barolos’ doing excellent work and to be on the lookout for.  Now they firmly had my attention, and I promised myself that next time I came across a bottle in Italy, I would partake. In the fall of 2022, I did, and it was every bit as good as advertised.  Getting Scarzello here in the US, though, would take some doing.  Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, though, and out of the blue, a very small LA-based importer let me know he had Scarzello and last year and our love affair with these wines was, at last, consummated!  And the wines have proved as sensational here as they were there! 
Federico Scarzello , by the way, is the third generation of Scarzello to run the family cellar just steps away from Barolo castle.  Though the family’s first bottling from their now organically-farmed vines in the Sarmassa, Paiagallo and Terlo MGAs was in 1978, it wasn’t until Fede returned to the fold from enology school in Alba in 1998 that the Scarzello star began to ascend.  Firmly in the traditionalist camp, he brings an incredible amount of passion and skill to his work. The best way to discover the Old School classic style at this address is with this absolutely wonderful Langhe Nebbiolo. Like the Barolos made here, the maceration in cement tank is extended and the extraction gentle but the aging in cask is only eight months and bottle aging only six before release.  It’s an exceedingly pretty style with its pure cherry-inflected fruit front and center while its beautiful aromatics of spicy camphor, cinnamon, tar and fennel wild fennel add interest. Ready now- maybe with a little decanting- I would be very pleased to also uncover a few bottles in the back of the cellar in eight or ten years too!  Very highly recommended.
And, since you’re going to ask, I also have a couple of cases of Scarzello’s 2016 Barolo from the Sarmassa vineyard in stock as well.  It’s a rare find from this terrific vintage and a seems (to me!) a terrific addition to any serious Barolo cellar and worth every penny of its $99.99 a bottle.  Add a few bottles into your case of Langhe Nebbiolo!