Why it matters
The producer
Paolo Scavino farms Barolo the way a geologist maps a hillside: plot by plot, argument by argument. The estate sits in Castiglione Falletto, the central village of the Barolo zone, and draws from 30 hectares divided among 20 separate parcels across eight communes. Each plot is vinified on its own, and some are split further into multiple fermentations when soil composition, altitude, vine age or clone differences justify it.
The estate was founded in 1921 by Lorenzo Scavino and his son Paolo. Lorenzo's grandson Enrico joined the farm at the age of ten in 1951, when the holding still raised animals and grew fruit and grain alongside its vines. Enrico would spend the next seven decades shaping how the family understood and bottled Barolo. He died in 2024. His daughters Elisa and Enrica, the fourth generation, now run the estate.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Castiglione Falletto sits at the heart of the Barolo zone, between La Morra to the northwest and Serralunga d'Alba to the southeast. The village appellation sits on soils with a higher proportion of Helvetian limestone and compact Tortonian marls. Its Nebbiolo runs firmer and more tannic than the fleshier wines from La Morra's Tortonian-dominated hillsides.
Paolo Scavino does not stay within Castiglione Falletto alone. Its 20 plots reach into seven additional communes: Barolo, La Morra, Novello, Serralunga d'Alba, Verduno, Roddi and Monforte d'Alba. Each commune brings its own geology and aspect. Serralunga's iron-rich, compact Helvetian soils push toward long-lived, muscular Nebbiolo. La Morra's softer, rounder Tortonian beds give earlier-drinking wines with more immediate fruit. The estate's spread across this geography is deliberate: the range maps the variation that the Barolo DOCG contains within its boundaries.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The farming is not certified organic. Elisa Scavino uses natural products selectively, guided by accumulated vineyard knowledge rather than a formal program. Yields are deliberately low, and during the first year of ageing, the estate reviews each plot's wine and sells underperforming parcels in bulk rather than diluting the label with weaker material.
In the cellar, each cru and sub-cru ferments separately in stainless steel tanks with native yeasts. Maceration runs eight to twelve days, followed by twenty to thirty days of alcoholic fermentation. The maturation sequence for non-riserva Barolo moves through ten months in neutral French oak barrels, twelve months in large oak casks, ten months back in stainless steel, and ten months in bottle before release. The combination of vessel types and extended ageing lets Nebbiolo's tannins soften without losing their grip, while the return to stainless steel before bottling preserves freshness in the finished wine.
Wines to know
The range in view
The everyday tier covers Dolcetto d'Alba and Barbera d'Alba, grown from the same 30 hectares that feed the Barolo range. Dolcetto gives soft, low-acid, early-drinking red wine with dark fruit and round tannins. Barbera, which lacks the grip of Nebbiolo but has high natural acidity, gives brighter, juicier wine suited to younger drinking.
The Barolo range is built from single-plot vinifications drawn from the eight communes. Bric del Fiasc, the estate's oldest cru bottling, comes from Castiglione Falletto. It is a wine of considerable depth, with the dark fruit, tar-edged tannins and firm acid line typical of the commune, and it has been described in recent vintages as showing dark cherry, graphite and dried violet with a long, structured finish. Ravera comes from Novello, from an east-facing parcel at 430 metres. The altitude and aspect moderate ripeness, and the wine carries lifted red fruit, firmer acidity and a more mineral quality than many Castiglione Falletto bottlings. Across the other crus, the estate follows the same protocol: separate vinification, active plot selection, and a long vessel-cycling maturation.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Barolo Ravera. The 2022 comes from a single east-facing Nebbiolo parcel at 430 metres in Novello, fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel and matured through the estate's full vessel sequence before release. In the glass it gives lifted red cherry and dried rose with a mineral thread running beneath, firm but fine tannins that frame a mid-palate of concentrated fruit, and a finish with enough acidity to feel long and clean. It is less tannic and more immediately approachable than Bric del Fiasc, which makes it the cleaner entry point into how the estate thinks: one parcel, vinified alone, shaped by place rather than by blending.