We had a bottle of '08 Orsolani Le Tabbie tonight at dinner. This was my first Carema, and I was surprised how good it was for such a young nebbiolo. It also needed much less air than I expected. The bottle was opened about an hour before we drank it, with no decanting, and it smoothed out quickly (it had a sulfur-and-alcohol bite when first uncorked). It struck me as closer to Barbaresco than Barolo, but the comparison is unnecessary because it held its own against its better-known siblings (at least for this $60 wine list price point). It was the perfect option for a low-key dinner out: enjoyable nebbiolo without the high price or long wait. Overall an excellent value.
Orsolani makes nice wines. The sparkling Erbaluce is great and the Erbaluce “La Rustia” is just off the charts. Really like the 08 Carema and it shows well pretty much right out of the gate. Beautiful Nebbiolo character. Doesn’t get nearly enough credit. Priced at $42 on my list.
Very good wine. Not sure it could really use more credit in terms of more consumer interest: it is made from a couple of pocket-sized patches of vineyard in a DOC where the entire area under vines is so small you can walk across it end-to-end in about fifteen minutes.
Orsolani, as Gary rightly points out, are really Erbaluce specialists (dry, passito and spumante), and theirs are among the very best.