Graphite, iron and sanguine notes encase the cherry fruit in this sinewy red. Offers a beautiful bouquet, then finishes on the dry side. This is likely close to its peak, so enjoy soon. Think osso buco. Drink now through 2020. 400 cases made, 70 cases imported.??–BS??Region: Italy / Piedmont / Barolo Select to Add

The 2004 Barolo Fossati Case Nere Riserva 10 anni comes from a more balanced vintage (without big heat spikes) that shows a pretty garnet color. The structure is there and the bouquet is ever changing and fluid. There’s a hint of dark fruit followed by spice, cola, dark truffle with tar notes of black granite and pencil shaving. This is second year this wine is produced. The wine is bottled after 24 months in oak and rests in bottle for six to seven years. There’s a lot a fresh fruit left, despite its age. Drink: 2016-2034. Roberto Voerzio started buying prized vineyard parcels in 1982 and has since amassed one of the most important portfolios of single-vineyards (15 parcels over totaling 12 hectares) in La Morra (with Sarmassa and a piece of Cerequio in the neighboring township of Barolo). He follows a unique winemaking philosophy that is somewhere on the spectrum between traditionalists and modernist, but Roberto himself brushes off these broad stroke categories with a shrug and a smile. “In the years between 2003 and 2007, my approach to oak changed over and over. I went from larger containers to smaller ones and back again to larger,” he says: “Ultimately no one really noticed. What is noticeable however is his non-interventionist’s approach. He uses ambient years without sulfites for the fermentations followed by spontaneous malolactic fermentations and does not filter. He also chooses different bottle formats to represent each wine (with a generous array of large format bottles) and sells them in meticulously numbered lots. Fossati was latest acquisition with 20 and 30 years vines. Importer: Winebow, www.winebow.com

Going back in time, the 2003 Barolo Fossati Case Nere Riserva 10 anni is a virtual celebration of the last ten years of our lives. It will undoubtedly be there for us, in fighting form, ten years from now. Enormously expressive and communicative, the wine shows enough ripe fruit and soft fleshiness to carry it through the years. It expresses beauty and grace. But, above all, this is a wine that makes us look forward and dream of what the future will bring. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2030. The wines of Roberto and Davide Voerzio offer a fitting conclusion to this tasting of Piedmont’s best red wines. These are stunning wines that capture, head on, the beauty of the 2009 vintage. They remind us of the dazzling heights achieved by the Nebbiolo grape. Importer: Winebow, Pinebrook, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620