What a delight it is to taste Oddero's 2018 Barolo Brunate. A glorious wine, the Oddero Brunate is one of the very few wines in this vintage that possesses real mid-palate depth and notable textural intensity. It is the smallest production wine here. I imagine that the slightly smaller cask used for this wine was an advantage in giving the 2018 a bit of extra flesh that is missing in this vintage. What impresses me most about the 2018, though, is its freshness and the primary intensity of the fruit. Iron, smoke, tobacco, dried herbs, chalk and a whole range of savory accents develop over time, rounding things out in style. What a wine!

Always a standout wine, the Oddero 2018 Barolo Brunate is a complete wine, and I use that word specifically because it shows balance, freshness, length and structure. It has all the basics of an age-worthy Nebbiolo that promises to increase in complexity and depth with more cellar age. At this young stage, the bouquet is singing with dark fruit, cherry, spice and sweet earth.

Camphor, violet, oak-driven spice and woodland berry aromas shape the nose. Lithe and polished, the full-bodied palate offers ripe Morello cherry, coconut, vanilla and star anise set against fine-grained tannins that leave a drying close.

A pure, elegant style, this red reveals cherry, strawberry, rose, iron and tobacco aromas and flavors allied to a graceful frame. Firms up on the finish yet remains juicy and long. Best from 2024 through 2035. 150 cases made.