Barolo fruit, Barolo soil, Barolo vine age, outside the Barolo rules. From 30 year old vines in Serralunga d'Alba.

This is the arbitrage play on the Piedmont shelf. The importer tech sheet says it plainly: Nebbiolo from the best positions in Serralunga d'Alba, Guyot trained, vines approximately 30 to 35 years old. Serralunga is one of the most structurally serious Barolo communes there is, and this wine is grown in it, just outside the DOCG boundary lines on paper.

The cellar treatment is not entry level either. Grapes are collected in small baskets and taken immediately to the winery to be pressed and destemmed, then placed in temperature controlled vats for 10 days of maceration with frequent punching down for colour, and in spring, after malolactic, the wine moves into oak to age for at least 12 months. A full year in wood is generous for a Langhe Nebbiolo.

The producer

Alessandro Rivetto produces Langhe Arneis, Langhe Nascetta, Dolcetto d'Alba, Barbera d'Alba, Langhe Nebbiolo, Barolo including Serralunga d'Alba, Lazzarito and Vigna Rionda, Barbaresco and Moscato d'Asti, from 16 hectares and about 100,000 bottles, with vineyards in Sinio, Serralunga d'Alba, La Morra, Alba and Acqui Terme.

Read that list again: Lazzarito and Vigna Rionda, two of the most revered crus in all of Barolo. This is a house with grand cru land making an everyday Nebbiolo, and that is the whole pitch.

The company describes itself as dynamic and always on the move, and says it would be wrong to call it a single location, since the headquarters is now the natural balcony of La Morra.

Tasting notes, 2024

Strawberry, clove and sour cherry lead, in a wine described as refreshing, mildly aromatic and dry, with red fruits, floral undertones and a hint of spice.

• Colour: ruby red with light brick highlights
• Nose: intense, persistent and elegant, recalling dried flowers, raisin and liquorice, with raspberry and violet
• Palate: fine, with rich structure and good tannins, textured and earthy, bright and tangy, finishing dry and firm
• Finish: long, with a mild liquorice note that lingers
• Drink: now, with a span given as 2024 to 2034