The nose is vivid, powerful and neat; austere at the beginning. Wild berries, coffee, licorice, violet and mint. Good balsamic tones. Powerful and structured. Savoury with clear tannins very long finish. Slow-cooked red meats, perfect with deer roast. 100% Nebbiolo Az Agr Giovanni Rosso is a family-owned estate who have been growing grapes in the Comune of Serralunga d'Alba since the 1890's, including the Crus of Cerretta and Serra. During the 1980's, Giovanni Rosso restructured the vineyards with the aim of producing the best possible wines, and in 2001, Giovanni's son Davide took charge of winemaking, following his own mantra "wine should be a perfect copy of its terroir". In 2010 the prized Serralunga d'Alba Cru vineyard, Vigna Rionda, was inherited from Davide's cousin, Tommaso Canale. Davide replanted three-quarters to nebbiolo, the remaining quarter being magnificent old vine nebbiolo, planted in 1946. Davide makes two wines, both named in honour of his mother, Ester Canale: the Nebbiolo Langhe Rosso (young vine) and the Barolo Vigna Rionda Rosso (old vine). In 2016 Davide purchased a small plot at 750 m.a.s.l on Mt Etna, close to the village of Solicchiata, in Passopisciaro with 4.5 Ha planted to nerello mascalese and 1.5 Ha of carricente, farmed organically.

AZIENDA AGRICOLA SORDO GIOVANNI Parussi, Barolo DOCG

Situated between Neive and the town of Barbaresco itself, Cotta beautifully combines the rich, fuller-bodied nature of Neive, with the tannic structure of Barbaresco. With a south-west exposure, it is usally the richest and roundest of the Sottimano crus, typically showing abundant red and black fruits with refined nuances of mint, leading to a palate of notable length. The tannins are there, but beautifully expressive and silky. A benchmark Barbaresco with a 15-20 year cellar life.

PRODUTTORI DEL BARBARESCO Riserva Ovello, Barbaresco

PRODUTTORI DEL BARBARESCO Riserva Rio Sordo, Barbaresco

ELIO ALTARE Cannubi , Barolo DOCG The Elio Altare Cannubi Barolo is made using Nebbiolo grapes. Only about 125 dozen bottles are produced each year from vines planted on south-facing slopes in the late 1990s. The vineyard, on marna stone, clay and sandy soils, is farmed organically, but along traditional lines. The grapes are crushed and then macerated on skins for 4-5 days in temperature-controlled rotary fermenters before fermentation using indigenous yeasts. The wine is matured for 24 months in French oak barriques before bottling unfined and unfiltered. The Elio Altare Cannubi Barolo shows a light, ruby-red colour with hints of garnet. The nose is fresh and fruity, with scents of rose petals and other flowers. The palate is typically warm and elegant with smooth, silky tannins and a long finish.

The 2015 Parussi is bursting with lovely juicy, wild forest fruit and grenadine notes underpinned by an intense, mineral freshness and fresh walnut-like tannins. A beautiful Barolo that closes with a super long, mint-and-lavender-and-cherry-scented finish. The iron-rich, 'blue clay' soils here are a little lighter, more oxygenated, with more silt and less clay than Serralunga. This makes for more vigour in the vines and a completely different style of wine. The Massolino family were attracted by the excellent south-easterly and south-westerly exposure of the vines, the vineyard's situation at 300 metres above sea level on the crest of the hill, and the 45-year-old vines. Today, they are the only Barolo producer to bottle a single vineyard wine from this cru. A traditional Barolo, 15-20 days of fermentation and maceration at 31-33°C; aged in oak barrels for about 30 months and left to mature in bottles placed in special dark, cool cellars for about a year. Founded in 1896, Massolino Winery, is based in and around the town of Serralunga, one of the prime sub-zones of the Barolo DOC. The Massolino familys greatest asset is of course their 23 hectares of (mostly) Serralunga vineyards, including choice parcels of such famous sites as; Margheria, Parafada and the legendary Vigna Rionda. We say mostly as the Massolino clan recently purchased a slice of the Parussi cru in Castiglione Falletto. Serrralunga, on the eastern edge of the Barolo DOCG, produces some of most profound and long lived Barolo. It is the home of great names such as Giacomo Conterno and Bruno Giacosas Falletto vineyard. The wines often have an extra stuffing of intense Nebbiolo fruit as well as a remarkable minerality that plays on both the freshness of the tannins and gives the wines a certain ferrous edge when young. It is fair to say that Massolino holds the most remarkable collection of vineyards in Serralunga, amongst the smaller, quality focused producers anyway. The quality strides at this estate over the last 10-15 years have been remarkable with significant advances made, particularly in the vineyards. Certainly there has also been refinements in the cellars, firstly by Franco Massolino and then by current winemaker Giovanni Angeli (ex Vajra) who has been working with Franco since the 2005 harvest. As always however, it has been the work in the vineyards and the search for expressive and perfectly ripe fruit that has driven the rise in quality at this estate. The resultant improvement here has been very good news for both the commune and Barolo in general. Today the wines of Massolino sit comfortably among the finest of the region they are wines of wonderful purity and elegance. They are exclusively aged in large casks, so they are traditional and yet they offer the best of the old and new worlds: pure, aromatic, textural, deeply flavoured wines that are at the same time precise, vibrant and distinctly regional. These are wines that score extremely highly on our deliciousness scale. Equally important, these wines are remarkably well priced when compared to the other top producers of the area.