Sadly, some might think so, but top Gattinara, or Valtellina are hard to call lesser than anything imo.
I just assumed he meant Nebbiolo that isn’t Barolo or Barbaresco. It is pretty much the same for any nebbiolo though because nebbiolo’s tannins eventually combine and form sediment. Some nebbiolo that sees minimal maceration time will show less sediment though.
These new oak notes come through in some young Barolo/Barb even if they’re not using small or new barrels.
Particularly when they’re not being honest about how they age the wines.
Clear, my mind went to LN and see how you went that direction. Agree, they are maybe less famous but…
Personally I refuse to define places like Boca, etc. as lesser. The Boca I had recently and posted about outshined a very good Barbaresco Rombone.
I’ll get in trouble for explaining the joke, but the purpose of the quotation marks was to render ‘lesser’ tongue-in-cheek. I agree with you and vote with my money. Of the approximately 60 Nebbioli in my modest cellar, only 2 are of the BB variety.
I asked the question because I assumed that the threat of sediment was a characteristic of the grape rather than the terroir, but I often read of Beserkers standing up BB but never Nebbioli.
I appreciate all the thoughtful responses
I guess I should put this here too:
1996 G. RINALDI BRUNATE-LE COSTE - Châteauneuf-du-Salil, Albany, NY (12/7/2025)
Salil made delicious French onion soup and incredible duck legs with carrots and onions. There were also oven-baked, duck fat potatoes.
He opened a quite mature Burgundy. I brought a quite young Barolo.
The food and wine were fabulous!
Posted from CellarTracker.
I purchase and consume more wines from Alto Piedmonte/Carema then the Langhe, and have found plenty of sediment in a variety of them. I manage the sediment exactly the same as with B&B. Why would one do otherwise?
As a side question for plural in Italian: a singular o becomes a plural i, so Nebbiolo, Barolo, Barbaresco become Nebbioli, Baroli, Barbareschi…but do they really? I’ve heard that Italians don’t do this (keeping it more like one sheep and two sheep) and it is just English speakers trying to show off their understanding of Italian grammar. Not criticizing your usage. Just looking for a definitive answer.
Thanks, and ha! I fudged the plurals. I thought about it and eschewed ‘Baroli’ and ‘Barbaresci’ as too precious, but the used ‘Nebbioli’. Unsure of what was correct, I went with a mix.
I don’t know if there is any truly definitive answer. It would be correct in Italian to use the i (btw, Kevin, you would need the h after the c when changing to the i to keep the hard k sound, as Chris has used it.) You will hear things like espressi but I don’t recall ever hearing Baroli or Barbareschi in Piedmont. I have no idea but it could be that the roots of Piedmont are distinct from the rest of Italy and the locals want to maintain some independence in their dialect. In another example, you see vineyards like Paje and Italian has no j.
The context to consider is that Barolo/Barbaresco are references to regions before anything else, when you’re using the words to describe wine you’re using Barolo/Barbaresco as an eponym and would not make that plural.
Barbaresco and Barolo are places which only exist in singular from what I understand.
I dont think Nebbioli exiszts either. If you were to say 2 Nebbiolo as in the wine I believe you would say due vini di Nebbiolo. In the case when you are actually speaking about the grapes I think it is just uve Nebbiolo.
Nebbiolo, Barolo, and Barbaresco are all invariable nouns. Plural is the same as singular…
OK. It’s official. For everyone on this thread, no more using Nebbioli, Baroli, and Barbareschi!.
I took a look and it’s because Barolo and Barb are proper nouns. Same would apply to Brunello, Amarone, etc, so my guess about dialect was off. I do see nebbioli used on some Italian sites like blogs. Doesn’t mean usage is correct although I suppose there could be some instances when it’s more of a descriptor than a proper noun.
There was a discussion of plural forms some years ago and, as I recall, a couple of Italian Berserkers came on and said the plural endings for common nouns would not be used for these names based on places.
That’s if you’re speaking Italian. When I write or speak in English, I use the English plural, ie. “We had several Rieslings.” or “We had several Barolos.”
I think I offended a good friend back then by saying that I thought using Baroli is pretentious, so I won’t say that here. 
As I recall, the Italians who posted indicated that they would just say due Baroli or cinque Barbaresco without any change in the ending. Do you recall, Ken?
I just got confirmation that, though not technically correct, Nebbioli is being used more and more commonly when talking about having 2 bottles of wine made from Nebbiolo. This is with Italian winemakers and so on.
Years ago, I was told at Aldo Conterno that they cycle out Botti every 7-10 years. That’s likely where the new oak flavors come from. The only barrique they used was for their Chardonnay and some Barbera I think
