Az. Agr. Azelia di Scavino Luigi Azelia Barolo Margheria 2019 750ml

Azelia makes three wines with fruit from Serralunga d’Alba, including San Rocco, Cerretta and this wine. There is also a Riserva from Bricco Voghera. The 2019 Barolo Margheria comes from a southwest facing slope opposite the Perno Vineyard. The site has very poor soils with white clay, and the vines (aged 65 years old on average) are forced to push their roots very deep as a result. This wine has a tight and very firm personality with dark fruit, rusty nail, dusty mineral and tight structure. Those rusty mineral aromas give it away as Serralunga d’Alba. This is an age-worthy wine, with 5,900 bottles released.

The 2014 Barolo Margheria opens with beguiling, deep-pitched aromatics. Bright red cherry and plum fruit, licorice, anise, rose water and orange peel are some of the many notes that give the wine its personality. Bright, saline and sculpted in feel, the 2014 is going to need a few years to fully unwind, but it is unquestionably vibrant and expressive today. The 2014 spent three years in cask. (Antonio Galloni)

Very pure fruit with citrus, raspberry and green strawberry aromas and flavors. Medium body, fine and fresh tannins and crisp finish. Crunchy. Drinkable but better in two or three years. (James Suckling)

Savory, boasting lavender, juniper and mint aromas, yet there is sweet ripe cherry and plum fruit flavors for balance too. Builds to a long finish, where big tannins reign. Best from 2023 through 2043. 675 cases made. (Bruce Sanderson)

A relatively open (for the vintage) red marked by bright cherry, raspberry, floral and cut hay flavors. Balanced and more on the elegant side, despite a firm grip of tannins on the finish. Best from 2026 through 2042. 600 cases made, 180 cases imported. (Bruce Sanderson)

Here is a darker and more robust wine from Serralunga d’Alba where soils are heavier. They also show a greater presence of clay and limestone. The 2014 Barolo Margheria is made with fruit from 50-year-old vines and shows compact and dense aromatic intensity as a result. The bouquet is constructed on top of thick layers of dark fruit, dried cherry, balsam herb and crushed mineral. The 2014 mouthfeel, however, veers toward the lean and compact side of the Barolo spectrum. (Monica Larner)