Massimo Rattalino - Selection 34, Barolo, Piedmont, Italy (2018)

TASTING NOTES

While exhibiting all the hallmark aromas of roses, tar and dusty cherries that you'd expect of Piemontese Nebbiolo, Rattalino's is a little more generous on tannins...they're grippy. Soy sauce, pencil lead, forest leaves, tobacco and dark fruit.

Massimo Rattalino is a traditional Piedmontese producer with choice vineyards in Barolo, Barbaresco and Alba. These are classic wines produced without destemming the whole grape clusters, and the aging is done in huge botti (wooden tanks). The resulting wines are complex, ethereal, with the typical nuances of rose petals, tar and dark fruit. Rattalino excels in coaxing the ripest tannins out of his wines, making them round and very pleasurable to drink young, a rarity in Piedmontese wines, where tannins tend to be harsh and requiring a long time to resolve themselves.