Youre right, thank you!
Here is a really good article on Langhe Nebbiolo and why it is a great way to explore Barolo and Barbaresco producers. It includes comments by Alfio Cavallotto.
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I drink a lot of Langhe Nebbiolo.
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A reasonable article indeed, and especially noting how it’s become useful to get younger vine wines to market.
I’m trying to remember what the alternatives were prior to Langhe DOC? Selling to negociants to bottle as branded Barolo probably the most common, plus blending into their better bottlings as mentioned. Maybe a little got blended with Barbera or Dolcetto (up to 15% other grapes?). In theory I guess it could have gone to vino da tavola, but presume easier / more profitable to sell off to negociants? I know it was not eligible for nebbiolo d’Alba.
Who are your go to producers for that?
At the risk of sounding like a shill, I will admit that I generally drink my own producers’ Langhe Nebbiolos, especially Castello di Verduno, Poderi Oddero, and Brezza. In general I find that producers who do a good job with Barolo will not neglect their Langhe Nebbiolo, but I am only referring to more traditional Barolo producers here, because that’s where my taste leads me.
I should add that Nebbiolo d’Alba is an excellent appellation for earlier drinking too, as a matter of practice these wines often come from the Roero region, on the other side of the river from the Langa. I drink a lot of these too. Sandrone, Giacosa, and Almondo make excellent examples. (I import Almondo.)
I see that Kerin O’Keefe has a very helpful article on her newish website about these two appellations.
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I just had Almondo’s Freisa a month or so back. Excellent, but quite different than what I normally expect from Freisa. It was a 2022. Super fresh and luminous. Very easy drinking.
You don’t sound like a shill. Providing access to the likes of Castello di Verduno and Oddero is holy work. I have not had a Brezza for years. Have they cleaned up their cellar practices? I recall the wines being a bit dirty.
I find Enzo Brezza to be dedicated to both clean winemaking and the local traditions. He’s not much for PR but I think he’s an excellent, very serious producer.
He just started using Vinolok stoppers, which I very much approve of, too.
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Nice! I opened one of these a few months ago and thought it was very good. Great value, even though I wish they were cheaper.
At what price was it a good value? 
If I recall correctly the they started to use cultivated yeast as of 2016, not to say that has anything to do with the previous comment.
Enzo suggested a pairing you rarely hear for Nebbiolo - with fish. Have to say that it works quite well.
Good to hear. To be fair, my impression came from a visit in 2003. I’m sure plenty of cellars and old botti have been cleaned up since then.
Good question. I used to buy these for $50 just a few years ago, and I thought they were good value then. At closer to $100 now, I’m not sure I wouldn’t just pick Vajra Bricco della Viole instead.
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Me too, though is that also on the Barolo bottlings or just Langhe DOC ones? The consorzio used to be stubborn in insisting on cork.
Have they loosed the rules on natural cork only recently?
I remember a '13 Cogno Bricco Pernice having a composite cork (looked like a DIAM, though I’m not sure which brand–but definitely not a natural cork).
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Cogno’s 13s use DIAM 30.
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Barolo too. I had the 2018 Castellero last night and thought it showed very well.
Some of the ‘disciplare’ documents require cork, some don’t. Chianti Classico for example still requires it, or it did last time I checked. They require bark cork stoppers, but allow maybe 40 different non-native varieties in the blend, go figure.
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The cellar looks very traditional, all big barrels, but the wines are very clean. I am not sure when the generational shift took place. Enzo just built a beautiful new fermentation cellar, too.
Brezza is unusual in that they make both Langhe Nebbiolo and Nebbiolo d’Alba, most Barolo producers these days IME just make the Langhe.
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