A new producer for me, apparently OttoF thinks highly of them. When I say impressive I mean for all the different reasons than a South American ”icon wine” would be. This is very slow to reveal its charms and it whispers rather than screams. It is so much closer to Valtellina than Langhe stylistically, I feel surprised but then I know nothing about Lessona and how the wines typically are. While it’s playing hard to get it gives you just enough that you cannot stop sipping and contemplating. I’m really intrigued, I must taste more of their wines.
2016 Colombera & Garella Lessona Pizzaguerra - Italy, Piedmont, Northern Piedmont, Lessona (28.2.2024)
Restrained on the nose with very pure and pretty red cherry fruit. Quite stony and minerally with distinct, complex spiciness. Reminds me of Valtellina Nebbiolos more than a bit. On the palate is on the lighter side but very compact and firm. Super tight early on, a couple of hours later it has budged ever so slightly. While sporting grippy tannins it feels very refined and composed. Introverted at this point but it very clearly oozes class. The 13% ABV if anything feels even lower. Very much an alpine feel here but it sort of hints at potentially gaining more weight and power if given sufficient air. A really impressive bottle of Nebbiolo.
Yes, this is the house style and inflects a lot of stuff Cristiano does. I spent a couple days tasting through several of his projects and hanging out right before the pandemic. He’s a wealth of information and a very serious thinker about wine.
2/18/2024: As usual with these wines, there was a vegetal/stemmy note when first opened. By the time we went to the restaurant, that had worked its way into the wine as herbs and spice. Really light color with pretty and pure tart cherry fruit. There are some floral notes along with the spice and herbs. Fine and firm, chalky tannins guide the finish. This is in a good spot now to start digging in, there is still some structure, so I would prefer it with food.
Yes, I would say so. But I would not use your description to mean necessarily challenging, demanding, or cerebral. They can be, but they are equally damn good drinking wines that I find very pleasurable. We recently had a 2014 Lessona that was so enjoyable from the first sip that my wife perked up and said we need more of that wine. Anything for you baby.
Maybe my wording was not perfect as this wine at least definitely drank very well. I suppose a better way to put it would be that given the restrained nature it could get lost in a crowd so better give it some spotlight (as opposed to at a tasting a line-up of bunch of wines, but then I’m not really a big tasting guy anyway).
I’ve had both and visited both, but I’m not sure I’ve ever done a side by side. There is a stylistic line through both, for sure, but the Le Pianelle would shade a bit darker. The vineyard was reclaimed from forest and replanted with great care. You can still see wild vines from previous history in the woods around the vineyard. It’s really quite spectacular.
Here’s a recent note:
2016 Le Pianelle Bramaterra
2/10/2024: This is a wine that really benefitted from air. Upon opening, it was a bit vegetal and stemmy. With some air it spread out and the fruit was more apparent and those notes became herbs, flowers, and savory hints. Even then, it was more backward than the Conti. It’s been three years since my last bottle and I think for this wine 2-3 more years is appropriate.
And a bonus one:
2016 Cantine del Castello di Conti Boca Il Rosso delle Donne
2/10/2024: Bright, pristine floral coated alpine cherry fruit. Lithe and crisp with firm but not dominant tannins. This is much more open than a bottle three years ago and is in the early part of a drinking plateau. It’s OK to dig in now but it should continue to develop nuance and I imagine the fruit will sweeten.
Haven’t had that 2016 yet, but I remember the 2015 vintage being rather underwhelming for both this label and the Bramaterra one (Cascina Cottignano). Both the wines were quite dull, earthy and even unpleasantly bitter with relatively little fruit to stand up to the somewhat tough tannins. I wasn’t particularly enamored by them.
Instead the 2014 vintages were simply gorgeous. Exactly the kinds of wines I look for when popping up an Alto Piemonte red.
Thanks for the notes. I’ve only had the Le Pianelle Costa della Sesia ‘Al Forte’ which I really liked and found surprisingly burly. I believe it is young vine “Bramaterra.”
I quite like Castello di Conti Boca. Recently, a 2011 was really singing, but I thought the 2015 still needed a few years. I also found them to be bigger than Vallana’s version.
I had the '16 Pianelle Bramaterra last weekend. We opened it Friday afternoon with another wine (2003 Pousse d’Or Clos de la Bousse) to decide what to take with dinner, in part fearing the soundness and quality of the Burg given the vintage. The Burg was sound, pleasant, and not getting any better, so we went with that. However, even if the Volnay had not been sound, we’d have likely not taken the Pianelle because it needed much more time than we had to give it. Very dense and structured on opening. We put the cork back in and revisited Sunday with pizza. By that point, it had opened up significantly, and drank very well. I agree these could use several more years of rest.
The Pizzaguerra is always very ethereal, the Bramaterra bottlings are, naturally, more ferrous/earthy/assertive. Overall, though, elegance and restraint across the board.
Not Nathan, but I’ve had quite a bit of both and generally tend to prefer the Colombera e Garella wines. I find Le Pianelle to be a) often a tiny bit chunkier/less fine and detailed than I’d like, b) for some weird reason almost twice as expensive as they should be
Do you have any clear sense of vintages for Alto Piemonte compared to or independent of the Langhe? It seems like it does well if the Langhe does well (2016, 2019), and also does better in warmer years (2015, 2018). Yet oddballs like Otto seem to like horribly rainy 2014 over 2015. And someone posted that Cristiano Garella like 2017 best for the decade. I seem to like everything I drink. Thoughts?
Thoughts?