Pleasing ruby color; cherry, roses on the nose; bright cherry, cranberry, red fruits, ginger, cola, spice on the palate.
Medium-light body with the significant but behaved tannin you expect from nebbiolo; good acidity, black currant tang, bit of leather, chip of mocca, lick of licorice on the finish. Nicely done northwestern Italian effort—Barbaresco is wine made near the town of Barbaresco. This effort has balance, some complexity, and can mature if you lay it down for a couple of years.
The Piazzo winery is located in the gentle slopes of San Rocco Seno d’Elvio, the Barbaresco region near Alba. In the 1960s, Armando Piazzo went all in for nebbiola, producing grapes for others, then bottling his own. Today, Piazzo has more than 150 acres of vineyards between Alba and the village of Treiso. The family makes wine: Armando, wife Gemma, daughters Marina and Wilma, sons-in-law Franco and Albino. Grandchildren wait in the wings. Such is the glory of wine and wineries—wine is a living thing lovingly made by human hands and families committed to craft and quality. You do not just taste fermented grape juice when you drink wine, you taste art, you taste history, you experience what generations of experience can evoke.
Armando Piazzo Barbaresco DOCG 2013 is delicious, smooth, gets better with air, is yet another reason to drink Italian wine. $27-30
Other photos: Piazzo family—Armando, Gemma, Marina and Franco Allario with sons Simone and Marco; Piazzo vineyard.
