The 2016 Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice is a serious wine, and I mean that both in terms of its complex sophistication and its rather austere and brooding personality. The bouquet is redolent of dark fruit, wild plum and redcurrant, but there is plenty more at the back, with iron ore, crushed stone, camphor ash and licorice. Those sharply contoured lines could be from nowhere else but the classic 2016 vintage, and you recognize its many merits right off the bat. It offers ample depth, nuance and power.

Amplified and spiced aromatics lift from the 2016 Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice, with notes of tar, cinnamon, dried currant, and fresh sage. Flush with mid-palate fruit, it also has driving acidity and gripping structure, noted by plum skin, tea leaf, and burnt orange. Defined with persistence and angular structure.

The 2016 Barolo Bricco Pernice is absolutely gorgeous. The pedigree of the year comes through in the wine's depth and stature. What a knockout. Ripe black cherry, lavender, spice, menthol, licorice, orange peel and rose petal are some of the many aromas and flavors that develop as the 2016 opens in the glass. Readers should be in no rush here. The 2017 is absolutely stellar.

Lustrous mid ruby with the beginning of orange tinges. Fine but a little drawn back on the nose and in need of lots of air. Brooding depth and with saline notes and hints of blood orange. Quite compact and a little closed on the palate, but it can't obscure the fantastic balance between succulent cherry, the rich layer of powdery tannins and the succulent acidity. Tannic and complex fruit finish with lots of juice and energy.