Completely agree with Jeremy, but I will add that very often an old nebbiolo may at first give off oxidized aromas, which will vanish as the wine comes to life with air. But a totally oxidized bottle? No.
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Totally agree with you Sarah. Sometimes when you first open them they appear a little flat. The other thing that tends to throw people is the colour on aged Nebb. As a variety, it naturally has an orange tinge and the older wines can be quite brown/orange. Always play what you smell and taste, not what you see!
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@Jeremy_Holmes @Sarah_Kirschbaum Thank you both for the feedback. I don’t have much experience with 60+ year old bottles. What do you think about bottles from the 80s and 90s? Much vintage variation but do you still lean towards giving these many hours of air?
I would still give them plenty of air.
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I once put together a mixed case of older Neb for a friend. He’s from the Roussillon and grew up with wine but he’s not really versed in wine outside of France. Well, one night he had some relatives over and decided that would be a good time to try some of these. He started texting me pics of open bottles saying they were dead. They looked fine and I knew the cellar they came from was excellent. I said to give them air and/or wait to open more until I could be there. Oy. They ripped through all and dumped all except for some 90s Produttori.
I had other people practically begging for more from the same cellar so I was sure they were good.
So it goes.
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Nice.
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I was previously unfamiliar with Rivetto. Dolcetto labels were mistakenly loaded onto the labeling machine for the fronts. Although they have Neb labels to go over these, I was able to snag these from a distributor for $16 and for that price I am quite happy. Drinks like a proper mini Barolo. Clean, but old school style. No oaky flavor although the color, texture, and nose indicate it spent time in botti or something that allows it to breathe. Solid wine.
I bought a ton of the '20 version of this wine and a bit of the '19, probably at a similar price. My early experiences were much what you report, drank like baby Barolo. With a bit of time, however, they fell apart. Massive VA issues in many bottles. Still have some left but am less enthused to open them now. Perhaps they have that sorted in the '21. Given how well the others drank young, I’d give it a try if offered at the same price. Funny that, about the labels too.
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You just confirmed what I was thinking that these won’t hold up too long. It doesn’t seem to have the structure. I’ve had three bottles of the '21 and so far, all consistently good. I’m going to guess the '21 has maybe a year or two of good drinking ahead. I also tried a bottle of the '23 which was fine but a little softer even though younger. I assume that’s the vintage talking.
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That would make sense that it would be the vintage talking. I have been and will continue to be very selective with '22 and '23 purchasing from the Langhe. Not sure how they fared in Alto Piemonte.
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2017 Luigi Baudana Barolo Baudana: This is drinking beautifully today. Highly perfumed cherry fruit, some ginger and stoniness. Full and fleshy. Still structural but tannins are calm. Layered, expansive and long.
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- 2022 Gian Luca Colombo Langhe Nebbiolo - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (1/10/2025)
First time trying this producer after learning about it on wine-pages. Wow I think this is as good as it gets for an entry-level wine from anywhere, incredibly refined and elegant with pretty sweet fruit. Some tannins as expected for a Nebbiolo but very fine. Excellent precision and length. Lots of sediment though from a young wine, maybe from the wood? (93 pts.)
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Not sure if this is true of Langhe writ large, but I’ve found entry Barolos from large producers (Gaja, Grasso) to have uncommonly good quality for price.
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Unfortunately tired, oxidized and uninspiring - expected more.
2013 Colombera & Garella Cascina Cottignano ‘Pizzaguerra’ Lessona
My Italian friend cracked up about the wine name when we popped a bottle some years ago.
I didn’t take any notes but this was showing really with with plenty of upside. It just grew by the day and enjoyed it a lot.
2020 Sottimano Langhe Nebbiolo
Consistently one of the best Langhe Nebbiolos out there and many times better than a bunch of Barolo and Barbaresco wines. You need a bottle with plenty of layers and Depth to put this wine to shame. Impressive and my daughter’s birth year bottle opened for the occasion.
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Pop n’ pour in a Grassl Cru.
Youthful, complex nose of sour cherry, pomegranate, dried orange peel, rose petals, saddle leather, and anise. This is fragrant and sensual, hitting all the right notes aromatically without being too heady. There is some subtle dried black cherry and plum fruit on the palate, but otherwise the wine clearly carries Ravera’s mineral-driven signature. This is firm and linear, with fine-grained tannins and fresh acidity providing vibrancy to its core of iron and dried earth.
This is only now just starting to show a little development for my palate and needs more time for its tannic structure to integrate, but is quite pleasurable now. Impressive given its 13.5% ABV. Will need to explore this producer further.
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@ melvinyeo - just had that 2022 Gian Luca Colombo Langhe Nebbiolo at a restaurant in NJ the other day - loved it. Beautifully perfumed nose. Served to us by the owner of a small but amazing place that sadly won’t exist much longer. For years he’s been turning us on to under the radar northern Italian reds. He travels to Piemonte every year to visit wineries and is friends with many. He told us that he’s pretty sure he has 60% of the US inventory of this wine lol and its likely true. Its very small production. I bought a bottle from him to bring home for the cellar.
Edit: looking at my pics it actually was his Langhe Nebbiolo Meretta
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Apropos of recent conversations around decanting time for young versus older Barolo, and how to decide what constitutes young versus old, we decided to treat this wine as young, with only a breif decant, and it showed very well, blossoming over the course of our meal, then starting a shutdown just as we finished it.
- 2004 Marcarini Barolo La Serra - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (10/5/2025)
I only chose this wine around noon for dinner, so it had a limited amount of time to stand up. Not having had one of these since 2019, I wasn't sure of the sediment level, and decided to decant through a coffee filter just in case. This saw about 45 min in the decanter before pouring for dinner into Conterno Sensory stems to be consumed with a simple meal of Flannery steaks. Beautiful and captivating nose of classic roses and tar, dark blackberry and plum fruit and a good deal of savory spice. Only a bit of bricking around the rim, clear garnet throughout most, no fuzziness at all. On the palate this showed a remarkable amount of elegance for a producer I usually think of as a touch rustic, which could have been the La Morra fruit shining through. There was balance and persistence as well, with a satisfying decrescendo on the lingering finish. To us, this was in a fantastic place - still plenty of fruit on display, integrated but still somewhat firm tannins, lively acidity. While open and generous, this was a genuinely youthful showing. I have no idea what the many notes saying this wine is on the downslope were about. Could they all have been bad bottles or poorly stored? Or more likely people just don't understand the nebbiolo aging cureve? Or want their barolo to taste like cabernet? Whatever the reason, they are wrong (haha) - well stored bottles of this are just starting to hit their stride and should show vigorously well for a decade or more before any real fading.
Posted from CellarTracker
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2018 Luigi Baudana Barolo Cerretta: Some undergrowth development sneaking into the aroma profile. There’s some menthol and cedar too. The palate has crisp cherry fruit and a pleasant earthiness. It is mid-weight and beautifully proportioned. Tannins are moderate and supportive and the finish is perfumed and persistent.
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2006 Gomba Boschetti Barolo - ok, not great, mid-80s for points, but it was cheap…