2016 Barolo Runcot

The ripe ruby-colored 2016 Barolo Riserva Runcot was raised for 48 months in entirely new French barriques, but the oak spice is surprisingly well-integrated. Boasting noes of baked red cherries, polished leather, savory sweet tobacco, menthol, and cigar box, it offers a plush a rounded texture on the palate, with a nicely balanced, salty, mouthwatering feel, a ripe core, and its polished oak spice perfume lasting on the finish. It’s going to drink well over the next several decades. This is a profound wine that I wish I had in my cellar.

The Elio Grasso 2016 Barolo Riserva Rüncot is intense and powerful. However, there are a number of tertiary notes, some veering all the way to porcino mushroom and wood pile, but you also get threads of ripe black cherry, plum and even some dried prune. You can't escape a note of painters' studio with linseed oil. Bitter cacao or rhubarb also appear. This is an excellent example of an aged Barolo Riserva, but ultimately, you'll get more pleasure drinking this in the medium term without having to age it. She's ready to go.

The 2016 Barolo Riserva Rüncot is quite possibly the single greatest wine I have tasted in the more than twenty years I have been coming here, with the possible exception of the 1989s and 1990s. Deep and powerful, but not at all heavy, the 2016 dazzles from the very first taste. Dark cherry/plum fruit, menthol, lavender, licorice and mocha saturate the palate in a Barolo of extraordinary richness and intensity. The 2016 spent four years in 100% new oak, and yet there is no trace of wood at all. Magnificent!