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Barolo DOCG, all Nebbiolo, bottled by the German merchant Mack & Schühle rather than a Langhe estate. The 2018 is the softer, earlier-drinking end of the appellation: leather, tar and dried cherry over firm tannin. One UK listing, at £29.99.
The drinker consensus runs savoury before fruity. Across 540 written reviews, leather, earth and smoke are the most cited aromatic family at 154 mentions, ahead of oak and vanilla at 140 and red cherry at 120. Cellier's own note on the 2018 adds tobacco and truffle.
Leather, earth and woodsmoke lead, and they are the single most mentioned aromatic family across the 540 written Vivino reviews of this wine, ahead of both oak and fruit. Dried cherry and plum sit behind them, with the violet and dried-rose lift that marks Nebbiolo. Cellier's note on the 2018 adds tobacco and truffle.
Violet
Cherry
Plum
Tobacco
Tar
Leather
Liquorice
VanillaFull but not heavy at 14%, carrying the firm and faintly unpolished tannin Antonio Galloni found across the 2018 vintage rather than the finessed grip of a great Barolo year. Acidity stays high and keeps the mid-palate savoury. A cool, wet spring followed by a hot, steady summer from mid-July gave lighter colour and medium concentration, so the fruit reads dried rather than fleshy.
Long and drying, closing on tar, tobacco and a vanilla-oak note picked up over the 18 months in wood that Barolo DOCG requires of every bottle.
This is the approachable end of Barolo: a Mack & Schühle négoce label rather than a Langhe estate, in a vintage built for medium-term drinking. Vivino's 5,998 raters settle at 3.8, and the recurring theme is recognisable Barolo character at a price where that is rare, with the depth of a top year missing.
One UK listing is live: Cellier stocks the 2018 at £29.99 under SKU 20463. That is low for the appellation, and it is where a négoce label competes, because Barolo's 38-month ageing rule applies to every bottle regardless of price.
The scores below weigh the 2018's softer, less polished tannin, a £29.99 shelf price against a UK Barolo market that usually opens higher, and the appellation's mandated 38 months of ageing.
At £29.99 it undercuts the UK Barolo shelf, which generally opens nearer £40, while still carrying the appellation's mandated 38 months of ageing.
High tannin and high acidity make this a food wine before a sipping wine: it needs fat and protein, but across braised beef, game, truffle and aged cheese it has more strong matches than most reds.
Barolo carries DOCG status and instant recognition, which does the work at a table, though a négoce label from a divisive vintage is a step below an estate bottling for a landmark occasion.
Barolo DOCG mandates 38 months of ageing with 18 in wood, so it arrives cellar-worthy, but Galloni rates 2018's ageing potential shorter than a classic year and the Italian vintage read calls it medium-term.
Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.
A compact view of what the Barolo denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.
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Antonio Galloni called 2018 the most erratic Barolo vintage he had encountered in twenty-five years of visiting the Langhe. Italian vintage analysis reads it more kindly: a cool, wet spring, a hot and steady summer from mid-July, then a slow September ripening, giving lighter colour, medium concentration and a medium-term drinking window.
A cool, wet spring gave way to a hot, steady summer from mid-July and a slow September ripening, producing Barolo of lighter colour and medium concentration. Antonio Galloni rated the vintage the most inconsistent he had seen in twenty-five years, so tannin here is firm but less polished than a classic year and the window is medium-term.
A cool, wet spring gave way to a hot, steady summer from mid-July and a slow September ripening, producing Barolo of lighter colour and medium concentration. Antonio Galloni rated the vintage the most inconsistent he had seen in twenty-five years, so tannin here is firm but less polished than a classic year and the window is medium-term.
Drink-now / hold guidance reflects general style cues for this wine, not a forecast for a specific bottle. Where vintage-level editorial notes exist, they appear above.
Barolo's disciplinare sets a 38-month minimum ageing period, of which 18 months must pass in wood, and caps yields at 8 tonnes per hectare across the eleven communes of the zone. Those rules bind Riva Leone exactly as they bind a single-vineyard bottling from Serralunga d'Alba.
Italian wine law sorts bottles into a pyramid. DOCG sits at the top: tightly drawn boundaries, prescribed grapes, mandatory ageing, government tasting before release. DOC is the same idea with looser thresholds. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is broader still, requiring only that 85% of the grapes come from the named territory.
Barolo is in the DOCG tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.
Barolo falls within Piedmont , covering Cuneo, Langhe: Barolo, Castiglione Falletto, Serralunga d'Alba, La Morra, Monforte d'Alba, Novello, Verduno, Grinzane Cavour, Diano d'Alba, Cherasco, Roddi. The denomination is further divided into 11 sub-zones.
Riva Leone cannot sell this wine until 38 months after harvest, with 18 of those months in wood. Three years of barrel stock and cellar space are financed before the first pound comes back.
The disciplinare caps Barolo at 8 tonnes per hectare, well below what Nebbiolo can carry, so every hectare returns fewer bottles to spread its costs over than an unrestricted Langhe red would.
Riva Leone is a merchant's house brand, not an estate. Skipping the capital cost of Barolo vineyard, among the dearest farmland in Italy, is how the label reaches £29.99 where estate bottlings start higher.
Galloni called 2018 the most inconsistent Barolo vintage in twenty-five years. That verdict pushed buyers toward named crus and left broader bottlings such as this one competing harder on price.
Duty on still wine at 14% is £2.67 a bottle at 2026 rates and VAT takes £5.00 of the £29.99 shelf price, so about £7.67 of what you pay never leaves the UK.
Vivino's drinkers rank beef, lamb, pasta and game as the strongest matches for this wine, and Cellier points to braised meat, game and aged cheese. Both land in the same place: high tannin and high acidity want fat and protein opposite them.
Nebbiolo carries more tannin than almost any Italian red, and tannin binds to the fat and protein in slow-braised beef, which softens the grip and leaves the fruit exposed. Brasato al Barolo is the Langhe's own answer to this wine. The 2018's less polished tannin, in Galloni's reading, benefits more from that fat than a smoother vintage would.
Try with: Brasato al Barolo · Ossobuco alla Milanese · Beef stew · More pairings →
The earth, leather and smoke that Vivino's reviewers cite more than any other note run straight into the aroma of truffle and dried porcini. This is a bridge rather than a contrast: the same savoury, forest-floor register on both sides of the table. Alba sits inside the Barolo zone and its white truffle season is why the match became local orthodoxy.
Try with: Tajarin al Tartufo · Truffle risotto · Porcini mushroom risotto · Tagliatelle al tartufo di Acqualagna · More pairings →
High acidity cuts through the fat in a matured cheese while the tannin scrubs the palate between bites. Keep to aged, firm styles and to Gorgonzola rather than anything fresh or milky, which the tannin flattens. The vanilla-oak edge from 18 months in wood also sits comfortably next to a walnut or a pear on the board.
Try with: Cheese board · Pecorino sardo e pan carasau · Gorgonzola, pear, and walnut risotto · More pairings →
Game brings its own savoury, faintly gamey depth, which meets the leather and earth in the glass at similar intensity so neither side buries the other. At 14% the 2018 has enough body for venison or pheasant without the weight of a hotter vintage, which makes it a workable Barolo for a British roast.
Try with: Venison Stew · Roast Pheasant · Sunday Roast Beef · More pairings →
Acidity is the hinge here. A meat ragù is rich and lightly acidic from its tomato and wine base, and the wine's own high acidity keeps pace instead of tasting flat against it. Agnolotti del plin are Piedmontese and share a kitchen with this appellation, which is the neatest version of the match.
Try with: Agnolotti del Plin · Ragu alla bolognese · Agnello Ragu Lucano · More pairings →
Capsaicin amplifies the perception of both tannin and alcohol, so a 14% Barolo next to chilli heat reads harsh and burning rather than savoury. At the other extreme, tannin strips delicate shellfish and turns it metallic. Neither failure is about quality: it is structure meeting the wrong food.
Skip with: Crispy chilli beef · Szechuan beef · Lamb bhuna · Cozze arraganate · Pairing guide →
Released only after Barolo's mandatory 38 months, the 2018 is ready now. Galloni rates the vintage's ageing potential shorter than a classic Barolo year and the Italian vintage read calls it medium-term, so this is a bottle to drink through 2030 rather than cellar deeply.
Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.
A short splash decant softens the first-pour edge and opens the aromatics.
Barolo DOCG mandates 38 months of ageing with 18 in wood, so it arrives cellar-worthy, but Galloni rates 2018's ageing potential shorter than a classic year and the Italian vintage read calls it medium-term.
£29.99 is the lowest tracked offer for the current vintage and we have no signal of further discounting.
Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 25 Jul 2026, 23:46 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.
Confidence · HighDrawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino and Wine-Searcher, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic.
Confidence · MediumFrom the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.
Confidence · HighOur reading of the price, drawn from the disciplinare, public UK duty rates, and typical landed-cost benchmarks. Not a quote from the producer or a retailer.
Confidence · MediumStyle guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.
Confidence · MediumRiva Leone is a house brand of Mack & Schühle, the German wine merchant, not a single Langhe estate. The name honours a Piedmontese wine ambassador who promoted Langhe wines across Europe in the early twentieth century. Because it is bottled as Barolo DOCG, the fruit comes from the eleven communes the appellation covers, from Barolo and La Morra to Serralunga d'Alba, rather than one named vineyard.
Yes. Barolo DOCG can only be made from Nebbiolo, with no other grape permitted, and the Cellier listing states 100% Nebbiolo for this bottling. Alcohol runs at 14%.
Divisive. Antonio Galloni of Vinous called 2018 the most erratic and inconsistent Barolo vintage he had met in twenty-five years of visiting the region. Italian vintage analysis is gentler: a cool, wet spring gave way to a hot, steady summer from mid-July and a slow September ripening, producing wines of lighter colour and medium concentration that suit medium-term drinking rather than long cellaring.
Drink it between now and about 2030. Barolo DOCG cannot be released until 38 months after harvest, so the 2018 already arrived with age on it, and the vintage's shorter ageing potential means there is little to gain from holding it much past the end of the decade.
Long-braised beef is the classic answer, and brasato al Barolo exists for exactly this reason. Nebbiolo's high tannin and high acidity also work against truffle and porcini, aged hard cheese and roast game. Vivino's drinkers independently rank beef, lamb, pasta and game as the top matches for this wine.
It is at the low end. Barolo carries a 38-month minimum ageing rule and an 8 tonnes per hectare yield cap before anyone adds a margin, which sets a floor under the category. A négoce label such as Riva Leone reaches this price by buying fruit and wine rather than owning Langhe hillside, which is among the dearest vineyard land in Italy.
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