Gaglioppo??
I was going to lug D’Agata’s grape book up to my Covid hideout this weekend, but I couldn’t fit it in my bag. Now you’ve made me regret that.
It’s the main grape in Ciro, IIRC. The ones I’ve had have a similarity to Nebbiolo in color and maybe young fruit profile, but don’t have the structure, tar and floral notes like Nebbiolo. But Oliver has probably tried a lot more (serious) ones than I have.
However, we need more TNs on Ciro…it’s great for titles like Hogan’s Ciros, Ciro Takes a Fall, etc.
I’ve had a handful of Cirò wines and some of them have been surprisingly tannic and remarkably Nebbiolo-like in that sense. And while they don’t have that tar quality a Nebbiolo can develop, I’ve had a few Ciròs that have been so redolent of roses that many a floral Nebbiolo would struggle to compete. So they can match a Nebbiolo in that aspect as well.
I like both Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir but do not find the wines from them even remotely similar.
+1
Thanks for the interesting thread - I’d throw my vote behind Nerello Mascalese, Sangiovese, maybe Xinomavro, Gaglioppo depending on producer. If it’s just a matter or finding more “economical” wines, go Alto Piemonte.
What was the last time you checked those prices? Just asking because most have nearly doubled over the last ten years…
Only every day, considering 
I didn’t say they were “cheap” but speaking to the QPR portion of the OPs comment, I think that there’s still a lot of really great wines to be had for relatively reasonable prices, particularly those that aren’t 100% Nebbiolo but with some Vespolina, Croatina, etc. While those varieties aren’t a stand in for Nebbiolo, they are interesting to explore, if that was what OP was after.
Yet, still, they are cheaper than Baroli and Barbareschi!
(I’m leaving Nervi-Conterno, Le Piane and a few other wines out of the equation, though…) 
This might still be the case on the whole, but the gap is narrowing fast. My take is that the best wines are, with fewer and fewer exceptions, all in the 30-60EUR range now (Nervi now exceeding). Kind of like 90% of top-level Barbaresco (with very few exceptions) and, say, 80% of top-level Barolo.
Even as little as ten years ago, I probably would have agreed with no reservations. However, as you imply yourself, the value play is now mostly in the Colline Novaresi and Coste della Sesia wines, and the like (there’s a lot of really good wine there, I agree). On the whole, however, see my response to Otto.
That 30-60€ bracket is quite large, but I nevertheless agree with you - especially how the gap is narrowing fast. However, it seems that while Alto Piemonte wines are trying to catch up on Barolo and Barbaresco, those wines are, in turn, getting pricier by the year as well - while the pricing of the wines outside Piemonte seems to be remaining, for the most part, surprisingly stagnant.
Alto Piemonte has been probably my favourite wine region for a long, long time: a matter of selective affinity. Tough sledding lately. Not challenging the pricing mechanisms at work here on the whole (there’d be little point to the exercise, and in many cases the reasons are obvious anyway and, at least on some level, “justifiable”), but just take Carema as an example, something that’s been raised here several times recently in different contexts. Essentially a two-dog race since time immemorial 
. Then, out of the blue, we see a handful of new micro-operations emerge in this pocket-sized corner of the earth over the last, say, five years, hitting virtually Ferrando-like pricing levels with their very first commercial release (not forgetting that Ferrando’s Black Label has also broken the 80 EUR retail threshold, at least here in the EU). Now, of course I understand the context. But I still find it, ehm, symptomatic, to say the least…
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Would they have the same impression of young wines? Young Nebbiolo & young Anglianico taste very different to me, but I do think that they grow in the same direction
No, definitely not. I think that no-one disagrees that a young Aglianico and a young Nebbiolo are two very different beasts. However, with some age they tend to converge stylistically. And by this I don’t mean that they wines need to become so geriatric that you can’t make it out whether the wine used to be red or white!
When it comes to young wines, I think it’s night impossible to find a variety similar to Nebbiolo - probably some Xinomavros, Freisas and Gaglioppos come close, but even with them it’s quite easy to guess which is Nebbiolo and which is not, if you have two blind glasses in front of you. However, as the wines age, varieties like Baga and Aglianico tend to become more and more Nebbiolo-like. Or should I put it this way that there is this common style the varieties like Nebbiolo, Baga, Xinomavro, Aglianico and Freisa converge towards to.
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Sorry, Otto, I was so desperate to agree that I couldn’t resist a tiny intervention. My apologies. But now, I agree
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Yes, sorry, you’re absolutely correct there! I don’t want to claim all the wines always converge towards a similar style, because there certainly are lots of wines that really do not.
Just one last observation (hopefully ) on the actual subject of this thread. When people say “similar”, mostly, what I think they mean is the Gestalt, kind of the overall feeling or atmosphere of a wine, less often the details (individual aromas). Once you start parsing those, it will, more or less, always be a moving target.
In this sense, I can agree on some Baga, some Xynomavro, some Aglianico, depending, again, on a lot of obvious factors. But Freisa?
I think people can be very prone to suggestion. Ampelography tells us the two are related. But, honestly… have you actually seen this? To begin with, as far as I’m aware, there are no more than a mere handful of Freisa wines that even receive the kind of serious/ambitious treatment required for a vin-de-garde, which is what Nebbiolo is, almost be definition (even the best Langhe Rosso, Coste della Sesia etc. can age meaningfully for 15, 20, perhaps more years, no problem at all).
Maybe I’m missing something here. The only Freisa that I’ve had that was past the 20-year mark is Kye’ (quite recently, meaning over the last two or three years). The couple of times I enjoyed those older vintages, mind you, I’m not saying they tasted like Salta Malbec or South-African CS , but, outside some parallel universe, I honestly don’t think I would have confused them for a Nebbiolo .
(Stranger things have happened, though… ).
I was thinking about the translucent color, often with orange glints even when released, and the clear red fruit and sandalwood/cedar/tobacco-leaf aroma and flavor. I think the winemaking is way behind the Langhe, from the experiences I’ve had, but the potential is amazing.
The OP referenced his previous thread:
New user, here! I had my first Langhe Nebbiolo the other night, specifically a 2018 Fratelli Barale. Needless to say, I’m hooked.
Anyone have any favorite weeknight Nebbiolo, ideally $20-30
That thread got many suggestions for budget-friendly Nebbiolo that fit the requested category - weeknight wines, not wines necessarily meant to be aged 15-20 years (even if they can be). You praised Vallana wines. Yep. They can age for decades, yet the 2016s are drinking wonderfully now and can be used as a
Tuesday night pizza wine. And I think you’ll agree that large amounts of Nebbiolo are produced to be enjoyed young (including by the producers and their families and…many Italians by preference). And so in this regard, Freisa fits the request quite nicely. Just recently, I had a 2019 La Maraja and a 2017 Az Agr 499. Both were great substitutes for “drink now” Nebbiolo.
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