Luigi Baudana - Barolo Baudana 2019 (750ml)

Jeb Dunnuck 96 points
"The 2019 Barolo Baudana is flush with ripe red and black cherry, pressed flowers, and vibrant purity and depth. It is potent with blood orange, and it has a rich, firm structure that is ripe with turned earth, crushed rocks, and saline. It is a fully structured red with a long finish. Drink 2026 and over the following two or more decades.Since 2009, Luigi Baudana has been under the operation and ownership of the G.D. Vajra estate from Barolo. As with the Vajra estate, Giuseppe and Aldo manage the winemaking process, along with Giuseppe’s brother Isidoro, the vineyard manager. They continue to consult with Luigi for his understanding of the land and experience. They primarily use 15- to 17-hectoliter Slavonian barrels for aging, as the size of the cellar dictates. For the Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d'Alba bottling, selections are made from the crus of Baudana, Cerretta, and Costabella. With the 2019 vintage, they are now certified organic."
 
Decanter 94 points
"Fermented and aged in big oak vessels, Baudana shows a great complexity and delicacy of liquorice root, smoky woodland, rose and violet aromas, with wild strawberry and peony in depth. Firm and acidic on the attack, it has structured yet fine-grained tannins. There's the typical dustiness of Nebbiolo and it's super-austere but fierce in its character, with a touch of youthful rusticity on the finish. I would age it, given its old-fashioned character"

Vinous 96 points
"The 2019 Barolo Baudana is absolutely captivating. Effusive and bright in the glass, with tons of freshness and remarkable fruit purity, the Baudana offers up generous dark red fruit, spice, leather, kirsch, hard candy, cedar, tobacco and underbrush. There's terrific depth here and exceptional balance, too. Rose petal, white pepper and chalk lift the high-toned, intensely saline finish."

Wine Advocate 94 points
"The 2019 Barolo Baudana offers good power and ripeness with sweet fruit flavors, dark cherry, spice and ferrous earth. These aromas are characteristic of this site in Serralunga d'Alba. The wine is silky and generous on the palate, with salty minerality on the close. On a scale of growing intensity, Baudana generally comes after the Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d'Alba and before the Barolo Cerretta in this portfolio of three wines."
 

Vinous 96

"The 2019 Barolo Baudana is absolutely captivating. Effusive and bright in the glass, with tons of freshness and remarkable fruit purity, the Baudana offers up generous dark red fruit, spice, leather, kirsch, hard candy, cedar, tobacco and underbrush. There's terrific depth here and exceptional balance, too. Rose petal, white pepper and chalk lift the high-toned, intensely saline finish."