It's admittedly not a high bar, but this is probably the best arneis out there. A very balanced wine with really a bit of everything -- waxiness, acidity, fruit, minerality... Very pleasant and slightly sweet fruit profile on the palate, but just a smidgen of bitterness on the back end. Overall very nice.

Not as bulky as some other examples of this can be, with a very pleasant balance of red and black fruit, all ripe and fairly sweet. A significant dusty character. There's also a hint of orange peel on the nose that transfers onto the palate and a faint hint of brown spice. An excellent example of the grape.

The ripe vintage gives this already juicy and fleshy grape an extra level. Exuberant fruit, with less dusty, structural character than the dolcetto. The palate is similarly juicy and expansive. This finishes with some significant tannins, to the point where I'm thinking this ought to be aged a few more years before consumption.

Unmistakably nebbiolo on the nose with the light red fruit and floral perfume. Lighter in fruit character and colour than the dolcetto and barbera, with tart cherries dominating the fruit components. The expected amount of tannins here, but the palate is less complex and layered, as you might expect.

After all the preceding wines, the colour contrast (how light this is) is quite stark. A slightly truffled nose, with this awesome red-fruited delicacy, supplemented with more mineral cut than the Rabaja. There's a delightful lightness to this wine, with a sweetness to the red fruit that must come from the riper vintage. Plenty of acidity, with a more exposed acid and tannin structure than the Rabaja.

Next to the Asili, it's clear that this is the riper wine (and on more clayey soil too). Very, very expressive and broad-shouldered, and while the fruit is still firmly in the red side of the spectrum, this has more sweetness and intensity than its neighbour. On the palate too, you get a larger sense of scale to this wine; it may well be that they have the same amount of structure, but the acids and tannins are better hidden here thanks to the sweeter fruit. One of my favourites tonight.

I had very high hopes for this bottle after the brilliant 2011 Vigna le Rocche red label last year, but this just never rose to that level. There's a slight bit of dirtiness on the nose here, and while the fruit profile is nice, this doesn't have the purity and crystalline character that the best wines had. Not to mention, I picked up this super weird note of watermelon on the palate (it wasn't offensive, but it certainly wasn't expected). Fairly open for business, but just not too enticing for me.

This wine cements in my mind that 2014 Barbaresco doesn't suffer from the problems of Barolo. It's an intense but delicate wine, full of red-fruited and perfumed elegance. Layered and expressive on the palate, with a fullness of fruit that belies the lighter texture. Beautiful mineral cut, this is a wine that I'm excited to see age.

That this came after the 2014 Asili red label was probably unfair, but it also makes clear how different the quality was between the two regions. Frankly, this just isn't a very clean wine, and there's a funky dirtiness that just doesn't seem right in nebbiolo. The palate too has some of these dirtiness issues, and it's generally pretty thin with slightly shrill acids too.

Nice to be able to check in on this wine without having to open one of my own. From a great vintage, but just not very expressive at this point (which in all fairness is probably correct -- no one should be opening 6-year-old high end Barolo). The palate is a bit thin, but it feels like there is some good material here (or at least I hope so). Best to let this one rest in the cellar.

Another of my favourite wines tonight. This is just flat-out brilliantly delicious stuff. Broader and heftier than the 2015 Rabaja, but retaining all the requisite structure and balance. The red cherry flavours here are ripe and sweet, but on the back end you get the acidity necessary to balance everything out. As an addendum, this whole lineup of 2015s has me pretty convinced that Giacosa has got its mojo back.