The 2018 Langhe Riesling opens to a round and broad aromatic profile that encompasses all kinds of exotic and citrus fruits. The bouquet is a healthy buffet of lemongrass juice, mandarin orange slices and honeydew melon, with a touch of crushed mineral and lemon soda on the palate. Not overly sweet, it would be delightful next to a lobster or crab salad.

A courageous and innovative wine, the 2016 Langhe Riesling shows impressive results in this cool vintage. This vineyard was purchased in 1984. The soils are too sandy and well-draining for Nebbiolo. At 480 meters above sea level, the site was also a bit too high. For these reasons, Riesling was planted here instead, marking the first appearance of this variety in the Langhe. The clones were soured directly from Alsace. This wine only sees stainless steel to preserve the integrity of those lime, honey and tangy grapefruit notes.

Here's an unexpected surprise from the Langhe in Northern Italy. The 2015 Langhe Riesling opens to drying mineral tones of flint and granite that work nicely across from mild aromas of white fruit, honey and orange peel. You also get the characteristic hint of petrol that is common to Riesling. This is a sharp and sapid wine that is unlike anything else found in Piedmont.

The 2009 Langhe Bianco is Riesling from Alsatian clones. In this vintage the Bianco is especially ripe, with plenty of richness and volume in its white stone fruits, flowers and minerals. Varietal notes remain another year or two away, but they always develop in this wine. In many ways, I wonder if Vajra wouldn’t be better served giving this an extra year in bottle before its release, as the wine really isn’t ready to be fully appreciated, which is a shame. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2019. Aldo and Milena Vajra craft some of the most beautiful, original wines in all of Italy. Frankly, it is impossible to go wrong with any of these superb bottles. Importer: Martin Scott Wines, Little Neck, NY; tel. (516) 327-0808

The 2008 Langhe Bianco Petracine (Riesling) is simply gorgeous in this vintage. Rich and expansive, the wine blossoms on the palate with an intricate array of honeyed fruit. Ideally the wine needs a few years in bottle for some of the more tertiary notes to develop, but this is a lovely bottle. Vajra’s Riesling is made from vines in Barolo and Sinio cropped to tiny yields that give just one bottle per plant, yields that would be considered small even for important red wines. This is a high-class effort. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2018. Vajra is one of Piedmont’s best kept secrets. Here readers will enter a world of sublime hand-crafted, artisan wines of the very highest level. Aldo and Milena Vajra’s passion comes through in spades in these terrific new releases, which I can’t recommend highly enough. Importer: Martin Scott Wines, Little Neck, NY; tel. (516) 327-0808