DAMILANO BAROLO LECINQUEVIGNE 2016

This is really creamy and delicious with chocolate, hazelnut, dried-berry and walnut character. Round and chewy with polished tannins, it turns ripe and beautiful. Such pure fruit.

There are plenty of savory notes—eucalyptus, juniper and thyme—reconciled by cherry and earth flavors in this red, which shows a midpalate sweetness before the pointed tannins emerge. The finish is long and satisfying.

This is a blend of the five vineyard sites farmed by Damilano, and if you look at the single-vineyard wines in this portfolio, you see Brunate, Liste, Cerequio, Cannubi and Raviole. The 2016 Barolo Lecinquevigne offers a 360-degree view of Barolo with pretty primary fruit backed by elegant tannins and mid-weight fruit fiber. The wine is a happy sum of its various parts, and as expected, you can’t really make out the characteristics of any one unique growing site. That’s exactly the philosophy behind a blended wine like Lecinquevigne. The wine ages in large oak casks for 24 months.

Pressed rose, woodland-berry and menthol aromas take center stage. It’s full bodied and tense, offering dried cherry, cranberry and licorice framed in tight fine-grained tannins that leave a drying close.

Lecinquevigne is produced from five vineyards in the communes of Barolo, Grinzane Cavour, and Monforte, and was aged for 24 months in large barrels of 20-100 hectoliters. The 2016 Barolo Lecinquevigne has classic aromas of tar, dried leather, cherry, and violets. Its structure is up-front, with tannic grip and driving acidity, fresh cranberry, orange rind, and clove. The 2016 is tightly wound and will benefit from cellaring 3-5 years.

An assembly of fruit from vines in five different communes of Barolo, this approachable wine offers flavors of dark cherry, tobacco and cocoa wrapped in round, supple tannins.