The 2018 Barolo Conca is tight and beautifully intense with cassis, sour cherry, wild rose and blue lilac. The wine's inner fiber is fine and delicate, with slight aromas of spice, licorice and toast at the edges. Barolo Conca awards a lot of fine elegance and a long, polished finish.

With fruit from La Morra where this historic winery is located, the Renato Ratti 2017 Barolo Conca is balanced and quite elegant, showing no overt signs of ripeness that could be expected of this hot and dry vintage. This bottle circumnavigates those hot-vintage pitfalls with graceful coordination. Wild cherry, crushed flowers, smoke, tart and crushed flint all emerge from the bouquet. The wine shows sweet fruit, but there is an equally measured point of salinity to balance it out. If anything, the mouthfeel in 2017 is a bit drier compared to past vintages. Production is 4,000 bottles.

The Renato Ratti 2016 Barolo Conca is another stunning beauty from this leading estate in La Morra. Conca is a prized vineyard, and you will immediately notice light mineral signatures of crushed limestone and chalk suspended delicately over the bouquet, hovering there like a veil. After a few swirls of your glass, you'll find rose, licorice, dark cherry and berry fruit. You can make out some of the oaky spice, but those aromas are very well integrated into the bigger picture here at hand. I tasted this bottle after a double decant and am delighted with these excellent results. Camphor ash and menthol notes create a pretty signature on the close.

Pietro Ratti and his family have created a truly beautiful expression from the Conca cru in La Morra. The 2015 Barolo Conca is more austere and closed initially compared to many of its peers from nearby vineyard sites. But you still get a sense of the profound depth and power of this warm vintage. This wine has the textural richness and fiber that is typical of this vintage with a more structured and sophisticated inner personality. A mere 3,000 bottles were made.

This starts out with licorice, cherry and tar flavors, picking up mint, hay and iron notes as it builds to a lengthy finish. Not a big red, yet intense and solidly constructed. Best from 2023 through 2043. 264 cases imported.??–BS??Region: Italy / Piedmont / Barolo Select to Add