Cordero Mario

The first thing I want to talk about here is not even the wine, it’s the Nebbiolo Rosé. Cordero Mario’s Valentino parcel is planted entirely to this old and increasingly rare Nebbiolo clone, one prized precisely because it tends to give a more delicate, perfumed expression of the grape. And Valentino itself is such a cool little piece of Barolo geography: a west-facing MGA in Castiglione Falletto, sitting between Villero and Monprivato and looking across toward La Morra. Cordero Mario are also the only producer vinifying Valentino as its own Barolo, which makes this bottle a pretty singular look at the site.

The wine really follows that quieter register. There’s a wide floral thing going on first, then fresh red fruit starts filling in underneath, with this little flicker of spice that keeps showing up. The palate is full and fresh, the tannins unusually velvety and tucked into the wine, and the whole thing feels agile rather than massive. These are vines planted in 1969, around 300 metres up on sandy Sant’Agata Fossili marls, so there is plenty of old-vine seriousness here, but the personality is almost the opposite of stern. One of those Barolos that reminds you Nebbiolo can whisper and still have an awful lot to say.