The 2021 Dolcetto d'Alba Monte Aribaldo shows that pretty dark-fruit intensity that this versatile grape is best known for. It offers plump blackberry and sweet cherry with some candied almond and fragrant rose. This is an ample production of 17,880 bottles.

Tangy and bright with a delicate mid-weight approach on the Dolcetto scale, the Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Gresy 2019 Dolcetto d'Alba Monte Aribaldo takes longer to pronounce than it does to drink with a quick snack of fried mozzarella sticks or rice balls. With this production of 20,000 bottles, this estate strives to make a leaner and more palatable expression of Dolcetto without all the extra fruit weight.

The Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Gresy 2018 Dolcetto d'Alba Monte Aribaldo (with 22,000 bottles produced) takes us deep into the soul of the Dolcetto grape. This cooler vintage offers a streamlined and naked expression with little outside intervention. That simplicity, that linear approach, gives value and meaning to a wine like this, especially if you are thinking of an easy pasta pairing. The pure and distinctive clarity of the grape is a real plus.

With fruit from a hot vintage, aromas of sun-dried prune and raisin rise from the bouquet of the 2017 Dolcetto d'Alba Monte Aribaldo. There is just no mistaking the heat here. However, the wine also shows good balance with round tones of black cherry and plum and faint tones of crushed mineral. This kind of Dolcetto would be a good match for a polenta and slow-cooked pork ragù, maybe with fennel au gratin on the side.

The 2016 Dolcetto d'Alba Monte Aribaldo delivers plump fruit that is redolent of blueberry and wild cherry. Dusty mineral notes of pencil shaving and crushed river stone appear on the close.