The 2021 Langhe Nebbiolo opens to dark primary fruit with medium concentration and elegant tones of dried blackberry and pressed cherry. There is a soft earthy quality to the wine that recalls tea, dried tobacco leaf or peat moss. However, the slightly more concentrated quality of Nebbiolo offered by this wine is the main attraction. Cola or dried mint adds lift at the end. This is a release of 140,000 bottles.

As a palate teaser before this lovely flight of Riservas from Produttori del Barbaresco, I am delighted to start off with the delicate and fine 2018 Langhe Nebbiolo. Showing a light ruby color, this wine takes baby steps with hints of wild rose, dried blueberry, crushed limestone and powdered licorice. It sports a fragile, fine texture. If you crave for a basic and absolutely satisfying taste of pure Nebbiolo, look no further.

The 2017 Langhe Nebbiolo is an elegant expression that shows tonic and fresh fruit with wild berry, rose hip and tilled earth. This wine excels in terms of presenting Nebbiolo in its most pure and naked state. This vintage shows an extra level of concentration and textural richness with a clear tannic bite on the close.

The 2016 Langhe Nebbiolo was bottled last September and is almost sold out at this point. The next vintage, 2017, will be bottled this upcoming September. Because Produttori del Barbaresco makes its Langhe Nebbiolo with declassified Barbaresco fruit, you see less of this wine in the good vintages and more of the wine in the difficult years (in which not all fruit meets the higher Barbaresco standards and is better sold at the more affordable Langhe Nebbiolo price tag instead). For example, 80,000 bottles were produced in 2016 compared to 120,000 in 2014. That said, Langhe Nebbiolo is quickly becoming its own wine with its own distinct identity and consumer. This is an elegant and silky expression with long flavors of dark fruit, tar, smoke and toasted clove. Best of all: it is a terrific value buy. Too bad not much is left.