Aromas of dried flowers, dried strawberries, lavender, and hazelnuts. Some roses, too. Full-bodied, chewy and powerful, yet the tannins are polished and very energetic. Lots of them, yet with gorgeous roundness and tension. Tight at the end, suggesting very serious aging potential. Try after 2025.

(94+ points) The Poderi Aldo Conterno 2017 Barolo Bussia Colonnello shows good focus, structure and a sharper character that is often the distinguishing factor in this wine. The bouquet is redolent of dark fruit and plum, but it also shows a solid framing of iron ore and dark stony mineral. These give the wine greater lift and contoured edges. This is not the first time that Colonnello is my favorite wine in this lineup, and I suspect it won't be the last.- ML

Offering plum, cherry, iron, eucalyptus and black pepper aromas and flavors, this broad red has absorbed the oak treatment pretty well already, with a dense matrix of tannins and lively acidity. Balanced and long, ending with elements of mineral and spice. Best from 2025 through 2043. — B.S.

The 2017 Barolo Colonello is heady, exuberant and super-expressive. Wild cherry, tobacco, cedar, incense and blood orange all race out of the glass. There is something exotic about the Colonello that I find quite alluring. This racy Barolo captures the exuberance of the year, but is not at all overdone. Early signs of maturity in the aromatics and flavors suggest it is a wine for near and medium-term drinking. -- Antonio Galloni