Elvio Cogno - Barolo Ravera 2018 (750ml)
Barolo Ravera is produced with grapes from the historical cru in Novello, a guarantee of fine aromas, sapid flavor and great complexity. The mainly calcareous soil of this old vineyard adds elegance and structure to the wine, making it ideal for ageing. Only a few great wines possess its capacity to develop successfully in the course of time. Austere and severe in its early years, Barolo Ravera loses none of its typicality with the passing of the years; on the contrary, it improves all the time. Careful selection in the vineyard and relatively long fermentation help to heighten the grapes characteristics, which express themselves to the full after ageing in the bottle. A unique testimonial for a prestigious terroir, a wine that takes the typicality of Langhe hills to the top in terms of quality.
Wine Enthusiast: 97 Points
Cellar Selection
This beautiful, luminously hued Barolo opens with enticing scents of perfumed berry, dark spice, eucalyptus, violet and forest floor. The savory palate combines elegance and structure, delivering juicy red cherry, raspberry compote, star anise and wild mint framed in taut, refined tannins that give it a smooth but firm texture. Bright acidity keeps energized. What a stunner.
Wine Spectator: 94 Points
This is alluring for the strawberry, cherry and currant flavors, with details of iron, tar and tobacco. Starts out silky in texture, then the structure sneaks up on you as this red builds to a long finish.
Wine Advocate: 94 Points
The Elvio Cogno 2018 Barolo Ravera is becoming one of the most important wines in Novello, and it performs very nicely in this more challenging vintage. In fact, 2018 helps to cement Ravera's steadfast reputation precisely because it performs so well despite spells of humidity and heat. The wine shows small-berry detailing with rust and crushed stone at the back. There is a point of bitterness that accompanies the tannins of this full-bodied wine.
James Suckling: 93 Points
Nice complexity to the nose, showing red cherry, walnut shell and pungent earth. Hints of pressed flowers, too. The palate is medium-bodied with lightly firm, velvety tannins and a very tightly wound core of fruit and tannin at the heart of the wine. The lighter structure is set, reflecting the vintage, but there’s enough going on for positive development with bottle age. Refined feel to this.
Vinous: 92 Points
The 2018 Barolo Ravera is a powerful, rustic wine. Wild cherry, cedar, leather, orange zest, tobacco, herbs, menthol, iron, and game race across the palate. Austere and wild, the 2018 is an assertive Barolo that will require time to come together. Even then, I expect the 2018 will always be more rustic than elegant, although I must add the 2018 compensates for some of its rough contours with good depth and tons of Nebbiolo complexity.
