2018 Barolo Cannubi Luigi Einaudi

Fresh berry and citrus notes on the nose, together with leafy aromas. Medium-bodied with a linear start to the palate, followed by a medium build of grainy tannin. A lighter structure this year, but there’s some good focus and drive. Needs time to even out. Try from 2024.

The 2018 Barolo Cannubi is another terrific wine in this range from Einaudi. There is an effortless, gracious quality to the Cannubi that is impossible to miss. Expressive aromatics meld into a core of creamy, exquisitely layered Cannubi red-toned fruit. Sweet red cherry, red plum, rose petal, mint and blood orange emerge, but only with great reluctance. The 2018 is pretty closed right now, but that won't be an issue in another few years' time.

The 2018 Luigi Einaudi Barolo Cannubi is pale ruby and garnet in color. This is a wine of great potential but today it was a little underperforming and subdued. It is a wine to taste again and review but on today's performance it has a rather light but pretty nose with creamy spice and orange peel notes. It is medium-bodied and the fruit is a little closed down at present. There are lots of fine-textured but firm tannins and the finish is long. I like the team here and Cannubi is a superb location but today this wine was a little reticent although it still has plenty of charm.

Bright garnet red, this has enticing aromas of pressed rose, woodland berry and botanical herb that come to the forefront along with whiffs of spice. Supremely elegant, the full-bodied palate has a weightless finesse, featuring juicy red cherry, raspberry compote and blood orange punctuated by notes of licorice and baking spice alongside polished, silky tannins. Fresh acidity keeps it bright right through to the white almond finish.