2022 Luigi Baudana Baudana Barolo, Piedmont

Best In Show Barolo or Barolo Riserva Decanter WWA

This admirable wine (our fourteenth Best In Show Barolo or Barolo Riserva) offers a serene and commanding reading of the warm 2022 vintage, one without any sense of stress or excessive heat. It's deep though translucent in colour, with soft, sweet aromas of burnished, autumn-warm red fruits infused with floral charm and lent extra complexity by forest and tea-leaf notes. You just know it's going to be graceful and deft on the palate, and sure enough it is – but it's also gathered, serious, taut and aromatically complex right until the final notes have faded. Its tannins are splendid: ample, soft but detaining, lending the wine gastronomic seriousness and finesse. Fine vineyard origins are surely in evidence here, as well as impeccable cellar work – and there’s no hurry to drink, though the wine is approachable already.

97 points Decanter

Pouring a jeweled ruby hue, the 2022 Barolo Baudana is beautifully perfumed with notes of framboise, violets, and fresh lavender. Medium-bodied, it carries remarkable energy across the palate, with an expanding mid-palate and refined tannins that reveal more structure with air. Balanced acidity and impressive persistence complete the wine.

96 points Jeb Dunnuck

Baudana is one of the great vineyard names of Serralunga d’Alba, and this Barolo comes from the cru that also gives the tiny estate its name. Luigi and Fiorina Baudana built an enviable reputation from their small holdings before entrusting the future of the property to the Vajra family in 2009. Rather than absorbing it into G.D. Vajra, the family has preserved Luigi Baudana as a separate estate, continuing to make wines with a distinctly Serralunga identity.

The Baudana cru sits on the western side of Serralunga, where the compacted calcareous marl and sandstone give Nebbiolo the structure and savoury intensity for which the village is famous. The 2022 growing season was hot and exceptionally dry, making vineyard position and careful farming particularly important. There is ripe fruit here, certainly, but also the firm tannin and mineral backbone that make Baudana a Barolo to approach patiently.

Luminous garnet ruby, with Morello cherry, redcurrant and wild strawberry emerging first. Rose and violet add perfume, followed by blood orange, liquorice, fennel and black tea. With air, darker notes of tobacco, iron and earthy spice begin to appear. The palate is concentrated and tightly structured, with red cherry and orange peel carried by fresh acidity and firm, chalky tannins. Anise and tea gather through the middle before a long, dry and distinctly mineral finish.

Agnolotti del plin with porcini and sage would be superb, alongside duck with chestnuts, veal cheek with polenta, lamb with rosemary or grilled radicchio with taleggio and hazelnuts. Our pick is the agnolotti, with plenty of browned butter and sage but no heavy sauce to get in Nebbiolo’s way.

Cellaring: Best from 2029 to 2045+.