Brilliant garnet-red in color with orange highlights. Firm, elegant and potent on the nose, it has scents of dog rose, mint and tobacco, scents which meld in the course of time into spices, coffee, licorice, truffle, leather and minerals. A full-bodied, rounded bouquet of great structure and balance, redolent of plum jam and withered brambles. The persistent chocolaty aftertaste is harmonious and enticing. Over the years it gradually refines its characteristics to achieve classic elegance and composure. Wine enthusiast 97 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. Drink 2024–2038. Cellar Selection Wine & spirits 95 Valter Fissore’s Ravera is typically reticent in youth, but this wine from the 2018 vintage shows an early exuberance in its red-cherry and raspberry flavors heightened by scents of rose petals and balsamic herbs. The tannins, while taut, are a bit softer and rounder in this vintage. Since 2017, Fissore has been including some stems in his Barolo fermentation's—about 20 to 30 percent in this wine—which enhances the freshness and adds some complex spice notes to the finish. Wine spectator 94 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. James suckling 93 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.