Giovanni Canonica Barolo Paiagallo 2018 750ml

Hisato Ota of Vinaiota, who has imported Canonica for years, wrote that the 2018 gave off a heady sensuality not quite typical of Barolo; the label reads 15% vol.

Paiagallo is the slope directly above the village of Barolo. Giovanni Canonica farms about 1.5 hectares of it, Nebbiolo with a small patch of Barbera kept for the house, on calcareous marl and clay at roughly 300 to 400 metres according to Louis/Dressner, his American importer; the Japanese importer's material puts the family parcel at 320 to 350 metres. The only other owners of the site, Marchesi di Grésy and Fontanafredda, do not bottle it on its own. Nothing is sprayed beyond copper and sulphur.

Gianni Canonica made his first wine in 1970 but founded the cantina only in 1983; since the 2002 vintage every bottle has been filled in the cellar under the family agriturismo on Via Roma. Output is around 6,000 bottles a year, and in a year he does not rate he sells the wine in bulk rather than put his name on it. In his words, how you make wine and how you work is a choice in life, one that includes having your farming insulted or dismissed.

Fermentation starts in fibreglass vats on the grapes' own yeasts, with no sulphur and no temperature control, and the maceration runs 30 to 40 days. After pressing the wine sits in cement until the malolactic has finished, then moves to large casks for two to three years, and is bottled unfiltered with a small dose of sulphur added only at that point. Vinaiota landed the 2018 in September 2022; Ota's reading of the two hot summers is that 2017 and 2018 match in alcohol and body, but the 2018 tannins are smooth where the 2017s are aggressive.

In the glass

Antonio Galloni (Vinous, January 2023, 93 points, as quoted by AG Wines) found kirsch, sweet spice, new leather, menthol and rose petal, a super-ripe wine carrying the warmth of the year in its sweet fruit and alcohol, yet without the angular edges of many 2018s and with freshness kept in reserve; an opened bottle was still going days later when others had faded. He adds that the ripeness has to be accepted. Louis/Dressner describe the cuvée's black cherry fruit and ripe, intense tannin as recalling Cascina Francia and Bartolo Mascarello.

When to open

Vinous gives a drinking window of 2025 to 2038 (as quoted by AG Wines). Callmewine serves it at 18 to 20°C and suggests further cellaring; an hour in a decanter is our own suggestion.

At the table

Our suggestion, not the producer's: brasato al Barolo, roast lamb with rosemary, or a plate of aged Castelmagno.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Label (Bottles Japan photo); Vinaiota (Japanese importer); Louis/Dressner Selections (US importer); Vinous (A. Galloni, Jan 2023) as quoted by AG Wines; Callmewine; Podocarp (importer material)