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Vietti Langhe Nebbiolo Perbacco 2013

Vietti 2011 Perbacco Nebbiolo from the Langhe, Piedmont | 14.5% | A wondrous wine made from 100% Nebbiolo planted more than 35 years ago to the calcareous sandy soils of Castiglione Falletto where the Vietti family call home. Nebbiolo –the great noble variety among the very greatest noble varieties is capable of conveying both place and its stage of evolution when so many other wines simply taste of their primary flavors until, as if over a cliff, they suddenly perish –and therein lies a rare charm: few grapes are capable of developing any scents or flavors beyond that with which they bring with them into this world. As people who may take for granted the marvel of how we grow and learn and change over time through education and experience it is perhaps odd to think some wines are simply perishable foods that taste of fruit and perhaps a wisp of the oak in which they were aged before they simply fall apart.

Many familiar with only the fermented fruit juice of a commodity crop only know wine the way they know a piece of fruit: a peach tastes of peach until soft and spent but Nebbiolo is different –more like us; it lives and breathes and takes on new dimension over time. Born and raised in Italy’s northwestern region of Piedmont, Nebbiolo surely proves its mettle. Depth, breadth and the age-worthy character of metamorphosis into new dimensions are its calling cards when grown in the vineyards of Barolo or Barbaresco but even some of the more modest Nebbiolo simply labelled Langhe when grown beyond the delimitations of these famed DOCGs can prove phenomenal wines –equal to a personage whose been fostered beyond a life of mere survival and appetite. No… these are expressive, driven by mood and timing –showing differing personality every day and wiser by their years rather than wizened by them. Langhe Nebbiolo can be great.

When old vine Barolo, however, is strategically declassified to Langhe Nebbiolo, for whatever reason, we cannot but help sit up and take notice. Vietti does just this here in their Perbacco -not only to ensure that their other Baroli (such sites as Bricco Boschis, Liste, Brunella, Rocchettevino, Pernanno, Ravera di Monforte and Scarrone from which the Perbacco springs) remain legendary but in some gentile stroke of altruism to offer as an opportunity for we who read about the beguiling heights of Barolo but may hesitate to take the plunge –not so much in the way of a doorway drug but more the low door in the wall Evelyn Waugh writes of which opens onto that enchanted garden which changes our perspective thereafter. So here we are introduced to the Perbacco 2011 all these years after its vintage yet still in its blushing youth bearing its blackberry, brined artichoke, and woody herbs of thyme, savory, bay leaf …and then telltale notes of camphor tiptoe in with notes of rosemary and creamy cedar chest. On the palate a cherry and cranberry compote is countered by tannins –cherry pit tannins and on the finish all the woodsy herbal notes rise up with a warmer dried baking spice akin to star anise. I marvel at wines like this that others may simply drink down and gloss over in their hedonism and why not –can one blame them? It is an absolute pleasure but so much more than mere gustatory pleasure. Just imagine what time may unlock for those with a cellar and a stroke of patience!
Wine review by Nicholas Livingston, July 11, 2014 (Fruit)

Food Pairings

Cured meats, aged cheeses are the obvious and certainly rewarding matches for such a Piemontese red but seriously: burgers - this is a dream with burgers off the grill.

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