2021 Cascina Luisin Barbaresco Paolin

The 2021 Barbaresco Paolin is Cascina Luisin’s most classically styled and quietly charming wine - elegant, fine-boned, and unmistakably true to its Neive origins. Sourced mostly from the Basarin cru, a high-elevation vineyard known for its mineral edge, this is a wine that leans into purity and finesse rather than overt power.

Vines average nearly 50 years of age and are planted on a south-facing slope, which brings a welcome warmth to balance the site’s natural freshness. Roberto Minuto follows his usual deeply traditional path: native fermentations in concrete, around 40 days on skins, and over two years of élevage in large Slavonian oak. There’s nothing hurried here.

The result is a Barbaresco that’s fragrant and detailed, with red fruit, rose and sweet spice up front, and darker berries and graphite building in the glass. The tannins are fine but gently assertive, and the acid line gives it length and lift.

It’s approachable earlier than its siblings from Rabajà or Asili, but it still carries that 2021 structure underneath.

18/20 points
"Minerally, saline notes leaping out of the glass. Great purity of red fruit underneath. Much slower to open up on the palate than the Basarin from the same vintage. Succulent acidity and super-fine, long tannins on the finish. Great elegance. A monument."
- Walter Spelling (Jancis Robinson)