TN: 2011 Vajra - Langhe Nebbiolo

Popped and poured with mushroom, prosciutto and truffle oil pizza.

Nice from the get-go, though you can sense the alcohol from the beginning (it’s marked 14.5%). The aromas and flavors are pure nebbiolo (rose hips on the nose). Good fruit and body with ample but refined tannins. Really nice daily drinking. Only slight negative was the alcohol, but I still enjoyed it. I poured off half into a 375ml bottle, which was a good thing because I might have consumed the entire bottle if it had been at hand.

Somehow I’ve only managed to buy the 09 and 11 of this – both warm years where the alcohol showed a bit after I laid the wines down for a couple of years. Still, if you have a weekday nebbiolo itch to scratch and don’t feel like opening up a more serious wine, this is an excellent stand-in. And at the $19 I paid for this two years ago, it’s outstanding value.

Thanks John, I’ll look for this.

I really like this wine and it is one of our go-to choices to accompany pizza as well. We drank about a case of this vintage. Also drank several bottles of the regular Rosso blend, which while not as good drank better younger, as it is a fresher, fruitier wine.

I had the Vajra Chinato for the first time recently. It is really delicious if you are into that kind of wine. Vajra’s entire lineup offers tremendous quality for the cost.

I don’t buy this wine on the regular, but bought several '11s after reading notes here and have really enjoyed the wine.
Nice note, John.

Vajra is a terrific producer all around. And a bargain.

One of the great thing about being a Nebbiolo lover is that there are a lot of really good everyday bottles, as well as Barolo et cetera. Langhe Nebbiolo, the better Roero examples, northern Piedmont all have great examples. It’s harder for Burgundy nuts, I think.

I’ve had the 2104 a couple times now. Like the '11, slightly boozy on the alcohol front but manages to carry it pretty well. A nice, approachable Nebbiolo.

I always think it’s the other way around. Barolo/Riserva is never cheap and the next step down is Langhe Nebbiolo which is a lottery if you aren’t properly informed as it ranges from unoaked, simple wine to desclassified Barolo.

Burgundy has 4 clear levels with village wines having village/cote distinction and 1er cru having undeclared/named site distinction.

But for those “in the know” there are great bargains on lesser wines from Ghemme, Alto Piemonte, etc and even in Barolo and Barbaresco. In Burgundy, the village wines of fancy pants producers sell for about the same as most decent Barolo, and the more you know the more you spend, not the other way around.

^ Any recommendations? Always looking for daily drinker Nebbiolos

I really disagree with that. I think the odds of getting a good Langhe Nebbiolo of Nebbiolo d’Alba are much better than getting a satisfying Bourgogne. Pick pretty much any good Barolo or Barbaresco producer and the chances are there their Nebbiolo bottling will be good. I don’t think you can say that in Burgundy. And there are many more Nebbiolo bottlings that are like baby Barolo/Barbaresco than there are Bourgognes that are baby premier crus.

Burgundy has clear label categories, but they don’t equate so closely to quality at the lower levels in my experience.

Yeah, for me it seems like the basic Nebbiolos from great producers are either better and less expensive than Bourgognes from top comparable producers. Bruno Giacosa, Produttori, Vajra, Cavalotto, etc, so many good basic nebs out there.

Vietti Perbacco is my go to.
Produttori normale
Vajra
Rovioli Ghemme
Just a few. The last three are very ageable. Perbqcco is more of a great $16 easy drinker of great quality

Julian – Below are some Nebbiolos that I particularly liked when I was tasting around Barolo and Barbaresco in late August and September. (I posted full notes from the trip here.)

A note on appellations: Nebbiolo grown within the Barolo and Barbaresco DOC zones has to be labeled as Nebbiolo Langhe, not d’Alba. Nebbiolo d’Alba is from some delineated areas outside the Barolo and Barbaresco zones near Alba. In addition, there are nebbiolos from Roero, across the Tanaro River, where the soils are different and the grape is rendered somewhat differently. I’ll leave others to comment on nebbiolos from other parts of Piedmont and Lombardy.

Among recent vintages you’re likely to find, 2011, 2013 and 2015 are warmer years and are likely to be fruitier. 2012 is more restrained but the wines often have terrific aromatics. 2014 was a more difficult year, with rain in early September, but nebbiolo is the last grape to be harvested and I tasted a lot of good 2014 reds of all types notwithstanding the weather issues.

Brezza: 2013 Nebbiolo d’Alba – Vigna Santa Rosalia: This wine comes from a hill just west of Alba, between the two B and B DOCs. Very good concentration/depth, with fruit and a real backbone of tannin and acid. A baby Barolo. This was the first clue for me that it will pay to seek out the lesser wines in 2013.

Oddero: 2013 Langhe Nebbiolo: From 25 to 40-year-old vines in the Santa Ambrogia vineyard and younger vines in their main Barolo sites. Eighteen months in botte. Nice body, lots of fruit and grip. A half bottle also showed well the next night at dinner.

Fratelli Alessandria: 2014 Langhe Nebbiolo: Seven-to-eight-day maceration at a lower temperature than the Barolos, then 10 months in botte. Lovely floral nose. Medium concentration with good tannin and acid. A very good outcome from this vintage.

Vajra: 2014 Langhe Nebbiolo: From young Barolo vines plus fruit from the Cascina Bertone vineyard in Sinio near Serralunga, just outside the Barolo DOC. The fermentation is 15-20 days and it’s aged all in steel. Notwithstanding the challenges of the vintage, this turned out well, and I guess I’ll have to question my view above that nebbiolo needs some time wood. This is less ripe than the ’09 and ’11 versions, which I own, and not on a par with the ’11, which punched well above its weight. But it’s still good.

Cogno: 2015 Langhe Nebbiolo “Montegrilli”: Aged in steel. Lovely floral nebbiolo scents. Also very solid wine.

Cortese: 2014 Nebbiolo Langhe: From younger vines in Rabajà, the exclusive source of Cortese’s Barbaresco. Twelve months in Slavonian casks. Nice nebbiolo perfume. Decent, lighter body. Balanced.

Rizzi: 2014 Nebbiolo Langhe: 60% younger Pajoré vines, the balance from the Rizzi vineyard. Elegant, lighter bodied but good fruit. And this bottle had been open for five days. I’d guess it would have showed better earlier on, but it was no slouch.

Other Langhe Nebbiolos that have been reliable over the years: Produttori di Barbaresco and Burlotto. As I said above, most good Barolo and Barbaresco producers bottle at least pretty good Nebbiolos.

Others:
Andrea Oberto
Matteo Correggia

More difficult to find:
Cantina del Pino
Brovia

I’ve had the Vajra Langhe Freisa and that too was a nice, lower priced alternative.

Basic nebbiolo has been hit or miss (but mostly miss) for me. I’ve tried a number of bottles of basic nebb and i find they suffer from one of two major issues. Either they are just low quality ultra budget wines with no real character or they are decent, but just too tight to enjoy right now. With a basic daily drinker, you want a tasty wine and you want it now without concern for ideal drinking window nonsense.

So while any cheap wine can suffer from the former issue, its wines like Vietti Perbacco that sometimes fall victim to the latter. Being a much higher quality nebbiolo (often labeled as declassified whatever), it has the makings for a much more ageworthy wine but its just a bit too tight when young (last vintage or so). I’ve had 2010, '12 and '13 and the 10 was quite tasty, the 12 ok but needed time and the 13 was tighter than can be and pretty much pure tannin (even after a double decant).

I’ve had good luck with a local bottle shop that carries a $12 nebb (Meda Margherita brand) from a winery that is either direct or negociant. Other than that, my only other good experiences been better quality nebb from better producers such as Giacosa Nebbiolo Valmaggiore, Cortese Nebbiolo and a fun nebb/merlot blend from Valtellina called Nino Negri Quadrio.

I’ve been meaning to try some basic offerince from sottimano, oddero, azelia and any other common brand but the CT scores can be pretty abysmal. Still, the pricing is worth a shot.

If you aren’t properly informed you will have trouble buying any wine type where the small producers are best. The difference with Nebbiolo is that there are three areas where high-quality wines are grown, two of which are very under-appreciated (the Valtellina and the Alto Piemonte appellations like Lessona and Ghemme). But buying the right producer is always the first step.

I agree with this take. I was enamored with this category when I first started drinking, but I now find the same problems, at least from the well-known Langhe producers like Vietti. Perbacco is a great wine but it needs real time and I am unsure of its aging curve. I find myself more drawn to the Alto Piemonte when I need a Nebbiolo fix that isn’t Barolo or Barbaresco. The wines of Etna can also scratch this itch. While the Etna wines can be tannic as well, they just seem more put-together at a young age.