This is a gorgeous wine, and although it could stand more years of aging, you're not wrong to enjoy it in the near or medium term either. The 2017 Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda is packed tight with dark fruit, but it also shows a delicately savory edge with black licorice and rusty metal. The wine's intensity and the mouthfeel are sublime. Aging sees it go into botte for 36 months followed by another 36 months in bottle before its release. Production is 12,500 bottles.

Packaged with a special black label, the Massolino 2016 Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda is only released in the best vintages. Showing the power and the determination of Serralunga d'Alba, the wine is redolent of dried berry, lots of rusty earth and fragrant red rose. These are the typical aromas of this vineyard, and this wine presents them with impeccable integration. To the palate, this Riserva remains open-knit, tightly structured and broad in scope. This is an impressive production of 12,000 bottles.

Massolino's top-shelf wine is the 2015 Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda. This expression comes roaring out of the bottle with beautiful intensity and richness that is played forward with abundant black cherry, tarry spice, clay and rusty mineral. The 10-hectare Vignarionda vineyard in Serralunga d'Alba is farmed by many, but Massolino is responsible for about a quarter of its production. This gives this estate better flexibility and opportunity when it comes to fruit selection for this limited release. The warm and sunny 2015 vintage wraps thickly over the palate, imparting a satiny texture and long finish.

The Massolino 2014 Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda is a wine that speaks of vintage as articulately as it speaks of site. The 2014 vintage is one of the most distinctive within these past two decades, with a quality of fruit that is fine, light, ethereal and almost fragile. However, Serralunga d'Alba, where the Vignarionda cru is located, is always characterized by extra power, structure and fruit weight. In a sense, this Riserva represents an intersection between those two opposites, showing both elegance and muscle. The wine opens to a pretty garnet color, and the aromatic intensity is well developed and capped by a mid-weight finish. Wild berry tones are followed by iron ore, blood orange and camphor ash. Massolino farms 2.6 hectares within the cru with calcareous and marlstone soils. Some 8,500 bottles were made, and this wine will be released in September 2020.

The Vignarionda in Serralunga d'Alba is measured at about ten hectares, and eight single-vineyard wines claim this provenance. Massolino counts a quarter of that total, making this estate the biggest landowner in Vignarionda. First produced in 1982, this is the ace in Massolino's rotation, and the 2013 Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda is a true standout in the appellation. It is finer, more elegant and more compact than its peers, bringing a spicy personality that belies a profound and deep nature. It's still tense, a little nervous and has some cellar time ahead of it, but this is a beautifully precise wine. This cru site is composed of sedimentary layers of sandy, yellow and ferrous marlstone that absorbs the moisture well. The soils are poor in organic substances, and therefore, the vigor of the plants is naturally reduced, as are yields, resulting in extra concentration and richness. Vignarionda also reaches phenolic maturity earlier than other sites, but that does not necessarily mean that it is the first of the vineyards to be harvested. The wine is aged in very mild oak in order to maintain the purity of the fruit and the robust tannins that come naturally to it. This is a real treasure for your cellar.