Posted from CellarTracker
One of my favorite wines in the world (that is still reasonably priced). Went long this vintage as a wedding year wine.
Consistently among the great Barolos each vintage. For my palate it is as fine a wine as both Mascarellos, Rinaldi and Conterno.
That is high enough praise for me to go buy a couple of bottles. I generally prefer the Ravera for no good reason, but will need to give this more shrift. I do have a couple of the 2010 in the cellar I see.
I don’t think you are alone in preferring Ravera…have seen that comment quite a bit. It’s subjective. I’m not as experienced with Ravera, but perhaps it is a slightly bigger wine with darker fruit based on my experience with the '12 vintage? In coarse terms, it’s sort of your steak wine, whereas BdV is a bit more finer boned and could even go with vegetable pasta.
Thinking back, I believe I gravitated toward it is because I liked both a lot but the Ravera was $10 cheaper per bottle when I started buying Vajra. Now they are the same price.
I think of Vajra as making some of the best value wines of Barolo. Thanks for the note.
The Ravera was cheaper in the first few vintages of its release. I like them both, but the Ravera is amazing in a more classic barolo style and a touch burlier (though still very elegant), and the Bricco is more of a unique profile compared to other producers with an even lighter and elegant feel.
I think that is quite accurate. The Ravera is very much in the old-school style and presents with more rusticity depending on the vintage, while the BdV has almost a certain delicacy to it, without giving up the power that is Barolo. I really like Vietti’s Ravera too, but find it rather austere and sometimes too stern, and seem to favor Vajra’s interpretation which can be accessed earlier, something I appreciate given my age.
I’ve been hooking through a few 2018 G.D. Vajra Barolo Coste di Rose of late too. Such a lovely perfumed and accessible wine.
The BdV is one of the highest altitude top quality vineyards in the DOCG, ranging from 390 to 480 meters. There are a few parts of Ravera that approach 480m, but most of it is quite a bit lower – down to 300m in parts. I’d imagine that accounts for some of the difference, and the precision of BdV.
I wonder where Vajra’s holdings are in Ravera? It’s one of the largest Barolo vineyards, with many different exposures.
How does Vajra’s Ravera compare to Vietti and Cogno?
I’ve only had Vajra, and I was kind of interested in folks opinions on how each of those producers interprets Ravera.
Yule, I’ve been wondering this myself. I have all the wines, the only thing holding me back from doing a horizontal is time - what I have is all too young still. In general I find that, looking at my cellar, I have a much wider distribution of vineyards in Piedmont vs. a lot of other regions. Still a Ravera tasting with vintages like 2006/8/11/12 could be pretty interesting and the wines not crazy young.
Oh, that would be fun!
I actually don’t have any Ravera from Novello, but I got an '06 Roddolo Ravera di Monforte and '18 Principiano Ravera di Monforte. I also have a '12 Vajra Bricco delle Viole.
I could also help acquire some other Raveras if you’re interested in getting a dinner organized some day.
Ravera di Monforte is actually a totally different vineyard if I understand things correctly. But maybe the tasting could be expanded to commune (La Morra or Barolo or Novello or Monforte, etc.).
Here’s a good guide of the most prominent vineyards and the sub region they are in.
Yeah, I think the only thing the two Raveras have in common is the name.
I sent you a DM about tastings – and thank you for the link! Highly informative.
I also like the Vinous Barolo map too – learned a lot there as well.
So is Vajra’s Ravera from the Monforte vineyard? I’d assumed the one in Novello, since it’s closer.
Vajra’s Ravera is the one in Novello.
That’s it.
The one in Monforte borders Serralunga and is geographically very close to Francia and Boscareto. Other side of the valley separating the two regions.