Cascina Ballarin, Barolo DOCG (Piedmont, Italy) 2016

 This wine put in a sensational showing when tasted blind in January 2020, though I wonder whether it might be a bit prematurely developed.  That’s impossible to assess from a single tasting, but I should note the caveat before heaping praise on this wine.  The bouquet is simply terrific, offering balsamic and leathery notes in addition to scents of ripe fruit.  The texture and flavors are similarly styled, with “deep, soft, ripe and rich” being my descriptors from the blind tasting, though I added that the wine still seems adequately structured and focused by acidity, wood and tannin.