10/23/2021 - forceberry wrote: 91 points

100% Nebbiolo from Sinio, right outside of the Barolo region to the east. Cold-soaked with the skins for 30 hours, then fermented and macerated with the skins for 15 days in stainless steel. Aged for a year in old Slavonian oak botti. 13,5% alcohol, 4 g/l residual sugar, 4,8 g/l acidity. Tasted blind.

Somewhat translucent cherry-red color. Fragrant and very varietally correct nose of ripe cherries, some brown spices, a little bit of old leather, light licorice root tones, a hint of wild strawberry and a touch of tar. The wine is medium-bodied on the palate with quite intense, savory flavors of fresh cranberries and sour cherries, some licorice tones, a little bit of old leather, light fragrant notes of dried flowers, a hint of earth and a vague, slightly smoky touch of tar. True to the variety, the wine is quite high in acidity with firm and moderately grippy medium-plus tannins. The finish is long, rather tannic and slightly warm with savory flavors of cherries, crunchy cranberries, some licorice root, a little bit of old leather, light meaty notes of umami and a hint of tobacco.

A very nice, clean and balanced Nebbiolo that punches above its weight - this doesn't feel like a declassified Barolo, but instead a wine that could actually pass off as a Barolo, only if the fruit came from the appellation. When tasting this wine blind, the first sniff took me immediately to Langhe and the first taste confirmed that this must be Nebbiolo. However, based on the somewhat lighter nature of the wine, I guessed lesser Barbaresco, probably from 2016 (as the wine felt quite young, but not too ripe, hence excluding 2015 and 2017 from my guesses). What surprised me the most was how the wine didn't feel primary at all, even though the wine is only one year old and bottled within the past month or so. Very nice stuff that is drinking remarkably well right now, but will most likely improve for at least a handful of years, if not much more. At just 13,90€ this is an outright steal.