2018 Pio Cesare Nebbiolo Langhe DOC

Nebbiolo Langhe is made from the same grape as the famous wines Barolo and Barbaresco, the nebbiolo. Nebbiolo gives wines like this a distinguished and grand character, but slightly lighter in structure than the great wines themselves. They are the product of the strict selection for the top wines, supplemented with grapes from outside the Barolo and Barbaresco. A perfect blend for a wine that has character, but is also supple enough to enjoy young. The grapes are harvested a few days earlier than those for the Barolo and Barbaresco. The fermentation on the skins takes about 12 to 13 days. The result is a wine that is a lighter version of the great wines, but which still has a clear personality, with the same character of the nebbiolo, but in a more accessible form, slightly easier to approach. Wonderful wine, with great finesse.

The Nebbiolo by Pio Cesare is wonderfully smoky and spicy in the scent, with a touch of cherry fruit, flowers, vanilla, laurel, earthy, a soft entry, at the same time powerful, a real personality, nice dry, cherries, vanilla, cream, good tannins and fresh acids. Excellent with characterful main courses, based on meat, with salads, cold starters, slightly matured cheeses.

The house Pio Cesare is one of the classic producers of the region. Located in Alba, the 'wine capital' of this region, and founded in 1881 by Cesare Pio. His name has been preserved in reverse order as the name of this trading house and family business. It is still family owned, as it is headed by Pio Boffa, the founder's great-grandson. He continues the family's work in an excellent manner, while also being responsible for a number of modernizations and changes at this fine, traditional company. Pio Cesare, for example, has always been a trading house that bought the grapes under contract from winegrowers in the region. This is also a common practice in this region, which has many small winegrowers with small plots of vineyard, who are always willing to sell their grapes to one of the trading houses. In that respect, the region is a bit like Burgundy, with all those different vineyards, each with its own name, subdivided into small vineyards, all owned by a different winegrower.

Pio Boffa has decided that it is good for the quality of the wines to also own vineyards. Over the years he has acquired a number of vineyards, especially in the famous areas of Barolo and Barbaresco. The vineyard property is now 45 hectares and produces some of the finest wines in the house, with a few separate vineyard cuvées as the toppers. These are only marketed in the good years.

The necessary changes have also been made in winemaking. A very restrained vinification has been chosen, in which the wine is left alone as much as possible, so with as few interventions as possible. Each wine receives the individual treatment that best suits that particular wine, with a shorter or longer fermentation on the skins, whether or not followed by a classic aging in Slavonian oak, the traditional wood of the region. It produces wines with a classic finesse, balanced and complex, worthy representatives of this special wine region.