Tried this stunning red last night:
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G.D.Vajra Dd’OC: Langhe Rosso (13.5%; Nebbiolo/Dolcetto/Barbera + Albarossa/Freisa/PinotNoir; VajraImprts/Manhasset/NY; www.GDVajra.It) Barolo 2021: Very dark color; very strong Barbera/spicy/pizza spices/Italian sausage light earthy/dusty/OV light toasty/oak some complex nose; quite tart/tangy/acidic very strong intense Barbera/spicy/Italian dried herbs/blackberry light toasty/oak fairly dusty/OV quite structured flavor w/ ample chewey tannins; very long/lingering finish that goes on&on; this is serious Langhe Barbera as good as most $30-$40 Langhe Barberas; a steal at this price; can use a few yrs of age. $17.00 (KK)
More sittlelift from TheBloodyPulpit:
- I recently praised the recent MonteRustico Blanca & Rosso as great values at $16.00. This Barbera is one notch above in quality at a stupid/silly price.
I think Vajra has been really on a roll of late & making some of their best wines ever. I need to go back & revisit some of their Barolos.
Tom
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Tom, you’re certainly right that Vajra is on a roll. If you need an excuse to revisit their Barolo wines the 2019 vintage has been remarkable.
I agree, Tom. I think this is one of the best values in wine period. It’s available in Houston at $11-12 with case pricing.
It really is a great value, and really a very good wine in its own right. Occasionally on this board people will dismiss the idea of there possibly being a good wine under $15, and I think of this wine, along with a few others, as a counterpoint, even if I don’t usually mention it. For me, I tend to buy the Nebbiolo Langhe for a few bucks more, but this is really good in its own right. If you want a bottle to accompany a red sauce pasta on a weeknight, this will do better than so many other wines.
I do wonder, though, about saying “a serious Barbera in its own right,” as I don’t believe Barbera is even the dominant grape in the blend. Perhaps it just showed that character in this bottle? I think one of the things I enjoy about this wine is the way it works as a blend. Just not very common in the region, outside of Alto Piemonte, where you will find Vespolina and Croatina with the Nebbiolo.
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To me, the wine spoke mostly of Barbera. Maybe the Dolcetto fleshed it out a bit. That $12 price is incredible.
But now I need to try their Langhe Nebbiolo.
I’ve been corresponding with Izzy Viara and they are worried about the escalating prices of Barolo and are wanting to give people some good values for wines of Piemonte. To which I applaud.
Tom
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I’ve never come across this bottling. It’s not listed on the Vajra website, which is weird. Sounds great.
I’m surprised you found oak, because they don’t oak their nebbiolo, nor their base barbera. The barbera superiore is aged in large casks. And I can’t imagine they’d spend money on oak for the other grapes, or this cheap bottling.
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This was a btl that just showed up here in NM. Guess I’m not surprised it’s not on their WebSite. They don’t list the MonteRustico wines there, either. Izzy feels because of the high cost of B/B in Piemonte, people will no longer look to there for value wines. It’s about protecting your market.
I picked up on what I felt was a slight oak signature that could have come from large oak ovals. Sure they wouldn’t squander small oak on this level of wine. But I could very well be wrong In attributing it to oak.
Tom
I’m surprised to hear these have been under the radar for some. It’s widely distributed. Like many imported wine, it’s cheaper on the coasts, but I see it for not much more locally. FWIW, I went to the Vajra website when I posted previously, to see if I could find the most recent blend, and was also surprised it wasn’t listed. When I typed it into Google, however, I found the link below, albeit from an earlier vintage, suggesting they at least acknowledged it on the website at some point.
I’ve never noticed oak on this. To me, it has always come across as fresh and sometimes a bit light or tart, but in a way that works with food rather than actually being dilute. The link above says that there is some new wood, “Aging: 18-24 months partially in steel and then in pièces of first, second and third passage.” Which reminds me of recent threads on oak in Nebbiolo, where I speculated that producers may use their fresh oak on lesser wines intentionally, to “clean” the overt oak flavors before the vessels are used for the upper level wines where new oak is not desirable. It also reminds me of a recent Olek Bondonio Langhe Nebbiolo that showed strong oak despite the internet suggesting they don’t use any, which made me wonder the same thing.