The Paitin 2016 Barbaresco Serraboella Riserva Sorì Paitin Vecchie Vigne is a gorgeous wine. The bouquet is especially redolent of dried rose and potpourri, and the dark fruit offers highlights of baked cherry or peach. This amazing crescendo of new releases from Paitin goes one impressive step further, pushing the boundaries with this promising and cellar-worthy new release. There is a point of bitter almond on the close, but the mouthfeel is otherwise silky and very fine in texture. Exactly 5,281 bottles were released.

The Paitin 2015 Barbaresco Riserva Sorì Paitin Vecchie Vigne is the outlier in this group of new releases. The warm vintage has produced soft and more concentrated fruit with greater textural weight on the finish. That vintage difference, and perhaps the advanced age of the vines, makes for a bigger and broader approach, and some of those vivid high notes that we saw in the 2016 vintage are replaced here by ripe fruit, plum and iron ore. The wine is all-encompassing and soft, wrapping over the palate with smooth and lasting beauty. Production is 3,500 bottles. I can't wait to taste the upcoming 2016 vintage of this wine.