Hi Sarah, how long did you stand this up before opening? Or do you have a special handling and decanting technique that obviates the need?
Stood them all up about a week in advance. Unless a bottle has been recently shaken up, Iāve never known it to take longer than that, really, to settle to the bottom, if theyāve been sitting in the cellar and carefully handled. I donāt do anything special to decant - a little light from underneath and pour carefully, then very slowly at the end, turning the bottle as I start to see cloudy moving into the neck.
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2022 and 2024 Giulia Negri Langhe Nebbiolo Pian delle Mole
About two years ago, I enjoyed several bottles of the 2022, such fresh juicy fruit in the bright G Negri style. Although towards the end, my last bottle was getting tighter and more tannic. Two years later, still tight and tannic! And the fruit is no longer freshā¦ Takes a while to open, but eventually does show some nicely integrated ripe layered fruit. Not the depth of a Barolo, but also not your average LN. Maybe a touch on the ripe side for my ideal tastes, and not sure if those notes will get any better with time. But I suppose thatās what the vintage gave. Overall, a wine of many faces and your guess is as good as mine.
I thought the 2024 might be easier and it was certainly a very friendly profile for me: fresh delicate crunchy young tart fruits. Lovely with dinner. But still quite raw and I would expect it to benefit from a bit of age, to start showing more character. Although again, vintages give what they give.
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1999 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Le Rocche del Falletto di Serralunga dāAlba - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (8/22/2026)
Double decanted off of sediment at 11:30am, served at 5:30pm and consumed with a friend over 3 hours.
Fragrant nose of balsam, dried black cherries and plums, wilted violets, and chestnut. Wonderful inner mouth perfume of the same, with a more pronounced core of tar minerality on the palate. Brooding and deep, this wine is umami through and through with a long finish of dried black fruits and tar. Paired wonderfully with pulled pork sliders.
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On a good run with the last several Nebs weāve openedāeach delivering above expectation and expressing different facets of the variety.
- 2015 AR.PE.PE. Valtellina Superiore - Sassella Stella Retica - Italy, Lombardia, Valtellina, Valtellina Superiore - Sassella (8/23/2026)
Mulled strawberry, roses, pastrami/bresaola (peppered cured beef), alpine herbs, leather on the nose. Mid-weight, iron-mineral driven, linear palate progression, with marasca cherry and black tea. Refined, with fine, silky tannin and a finish sustained by a menthol-minty amaro-like (albeit fully dry) flavor and crisp yet mature red fruit.
Yum. Drink or hold, in a good spot, can go longer. Rounds out with air, though not a wine with an expansive mid-palate. (93 points) - 2023 Fratelli Alessandria Langhe Nebbiolo PrinsiĆ²t - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC (8/15/2026)
Decanted and drank over about 90 minutes. White pepper, rose and raspberry aromas, elegant and enticing. Raspberry carries onto the palate, mid weight with medium acidity. Tannins are modest for a Nebbiolo, relatively forward and easy drinking, bright and friendly. Nice finish with reprisal of initial impression on inner aromas.
Drink now for youthful expression, not a "baby Barolo", though won't fall apart in the near term. (90 points) - 2018 Guido Porro Barolo Vigna Lazzairasco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (8/7/2026)
Day 1: I thought maybe I wasn't liking wine as much, not having really felt moved by any wine for several weeks. Nope, just needed a quality Nebbiolo to get back on track. From Coravin, raspberry, rose, fennel. Full bodied, not extracted. While a notch lower in concentration than the best vintages, it more than makes up for it in juicy, savory and fresh fruit flavors. Long finish with well-balanced tannins, a bit floral, a bit spice, just a suggestion of tar.
Day 2: Similar impression when provided time to breathe. Anise and menthol inner aromas, with plum and nectarine flavors, lifted with floral and leathery aromas. The ripe, summery stone fruit flavors are what catch my attention, atypical yet highly enjoyable. As on day 1, a long finish that captures the fruit and spice, especially anise, characteristics. Unassumingly large framed and powerful, yet delicate and playful, with chalky but not harsh tannic structure. Almost like it's not trying that hard, yet just is really damn good.
Drink or hold. (94 points)
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Gaja Sori Tildin 1998 was beautifully resolved and perfect maturity for my taste. Quite Burgundian in terms of florality and minerality, but there are also no grippy tannins to distract, nor walnut skin. It wouldāve taken me a wee bit of time to guess Piemonte blind.
Gaja Sperss 1999 was quite a bit darker, more Nebbiolo on the nose and still an assertive streak coming through. Darker fruited and richer. Great to drink now but will develop further.
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Happens! Great to hear about the Lazzairasco, just received the 2021. Was this one 15% too?
Based on my last bottle of the 1999 Monprivato in 2020, when it was open and giving albeit still full of youthful fruit, I treated this as a young wine, and only decanted off sediment about 30 minutes before dinner. Mistake. The nose showed roasty, slightly madeirized, of cocoa and wheat, and it gave the impression of being less vigorous than Iād every reason to expect. We held back, kept the decanter on the cool side, and tried to drink slowly. The wine slowly opened up, drew together and shook off some of the initial lethargy, but never quite got to the level of excitement Iād want.
I am firmly convinced that, in general, older nebbiolo needs a lot of air, while younger nebbiolo will shut down on you with too long in the decanter. The challenge is determining where old ends and young begins! With a wine of this caliber, I called it young, and called it wrong. Next time I will do better. Unless it pulls a fast one!
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FWIW, when prepping the '98 and '99 Gaja above, I called that āoldā :)!! Those both had plenty of air.
The 1996 Sandrone Cannubi and 1989 Gaja I served a few weeks ago were definitely young-ish. 2 hours was perfect.
14.5%, though if you told me it was 15%, I wouldnāt have been surprised. I donāt mind the higher ABV, if thereās balanced acidic and tannic structure, extraction is well-managed, and the fruit avoids veering into baked or raisined flavors.
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2021 La Caā Nova Barbaresco
Quite blocky and somewhat rustic. Yet, licorice, strawberries, floral, dark cherries and red berries. Long finish initially delicate then rustic, moving towards slightly chunky and powerful tannins.
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2019 La Ca' Nƶva Barbaresco - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (8/23/2026)
Medium light red. Tight nose at first after an hour in the decanter there was some nice spicy red cherry fruit with a bit of soft herb in the background. The flavours were a little darker than the nose, black cherry, plum and earth. The finish is typical Nebbiolo. Tannins and acid battling for your attention.
Lovely with some pork. (91 points)
Posted from CellarTracker
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I swore off buying new release Barbaresco, but this 2022 Albino Rocca is extremely easy going and ready to go now. It gives your palate the flavors of fennel wrapped in cherries. Impressive for its youth.
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I had a very interesting Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia ā08 last weekend that Iād be curious to hear any perspectives on, or 08ās more generally.
2008 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia
Decanted for 1 hour then drank over 3-4 hours. No massive progression over that time. Saved a glass for day 2 - same character but just a little dulled from day 1.
Pale garnet colour but not developed so much - still quite ruby in appearance. Pronounced nose of red cherry, blood orange, dried herb, iron, graphite, menthol, bitter dark chocolate, rose. Some tertiary fruit notes of cooked plum, tobacco leaf. The nose certainly doesnāt feel fully developed, rather quite primary and with plenty more to give
On the palate, thereās a remarkably bright fruit profile with orange and red berries again showing through. The high acid contributes to the wineās sense of brightness. Almost juicy and fruity! Pronounced intensity with some dried herb coming through on the palate. High tannins but theyāre extremely soft, fine grained, velvety, and already showing good integration. The tannins shine with food but if you like a little grip, thereās a gorgeous mouth feel to drink this on its own. No hole anywhere in the wine - fantastic mouth coating complexity. The finish is long with some dark chocolate coming through and a slightly toasted, burnt butter (?!) character.
Outstanding quality. This is a fascinating wine - The mix between sweet, juicy primary fruit and intense developed complexity was almost disconcerting. I see some CT comments regarding āreverse agingā - I can imagine exactly where that is coming from and could be a function of the unusual concentration in Francia. This is nothing like the Elio Grasso Gavarinini Chiniera ā08 I had a few weeks ago where it was relatively easy to understand the proportions at this age and likely trajectory. Iāll be very curious to see what happens to this in 3-5 year intervals from now. If I only had one bottle, I would certainly hold onto it for another 5-10 years at least butā¦it can also be drunk now which somewhat sums up the paradox. (94 points).
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Some thoughts on Francia. I find sometimes Francia to be dense and chewy, and needing may more years to resolve (recent 11s and 12s as an example). And sometimes they can be lifted bright and elegant - I was surprised by a recent 2010 that was served blind with my wine group. I got the same red fruits and citrus that you reported.
2010 Francia: Tasted blind. Liquorice root and cherry. Very expressive nose. Bright jubey forest fruits and citric twist. Really enjoyed this wine and didnāt think this could be a 16 year old Francia as it was so elegant, balanced and fine. 96.
Re 2008, itās a lovely bright vintage which has started to drink well. We had an interesting flight of 2004, 2008 and 2010 Cavallotto San Giuseppe Riserva served blind at a recent function, where the 2008 was by far the most enjoyable wine due to its expressiveness, bright fruits and acid.
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Enjoyed an 09 Conterno Francia last year and it was everything I want in Barolo. It had the plushness of fruit, combined with detail and complexity. To me it was drinking very well, with plenty left in the tank.
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Thanks for these observations, Will. Did you pick up much tertiary development on the 2010 Francia?
A remarkable thing about this Francia ā08 was how the sum of fruit profile seemed to add up to more than 100. I sometimes think of a wineās fruit profile as being on a ratio of 100% where the proportion shifts from primary to tertiary over time. I might have expected this to be 70% primary / 30% tertiary for example.
This broke my model as it felt like the primary fruit had remained at 90% but the tertiary added 30%. A straightforward way to explain this could simply be concentration of flavour and aroma - thereās more to go around! But Iād rather combine this explanation with the nature of the ā08 vintage. Together they create a wine which is able to maintain primary freshness while tertiary complexity accumulates around it.
This is why I wouldnāt like to characterise '08 as a ālightā vintage. I prefer thinking of ā08 and ā10 as siblings which is why your note is very interesting. Of course, there were differences in the growing season and ultimately in the wines, but also similarity.
Hi @Chris, not much tertiary development no. It tasted young, fresh and bright. I do like your scale - perhaps 95% primary (but elegant primary) and 10% tertiary.
I recall the first time I tried the ā10 Francia which was at the old Bovio restaurant in La Morra at the start of 2017 and got the same raspberry and forest berry fruit tones. My wife is very patient and doesnāt mind me taking notes 
And yes I think the similarities between 2008 and 2010 are there. Iām hoping 2013 turns out like 2008 is turning out.
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My first ever post! I have recently acquired a bottle of Conterno Francia 2005. No experience of Barolo by this producer (and probably at this level of quality).
Any tips, experience of this vintage recently? Really want to get the best out of this as I donāt normally drink wine of this quality due to lack of funds.
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