Marchesi di Barolo, Barolo, 2016

Barolo from the house that put Barolo on the map. Marchesi di Barolo traces its lineage to the Marchesa Falletti, the noblewoman credited with formalizing Nebbiolo in this corner of Piedmont in the 1800s, and the cellars themselves were purchased in 1929 by Pietro Abbona; his great-grandson Ernesto and family run the property today. The 2016 vintage is the headline: a legendary classical year that gave Barolo its full toolkit of structure, perfume, and length, the kind of vintage collectors hunt and wait on. This Tradizione bottling blends fruit from estate vineyards across the Barolo zone (sourced from the communes of Castiglione Falletto, Barolo, and Monforte d'Alba) and shows it, floral and mineral on the nose, dark cherry and tar through the mid-palate, finely polished tannins, and the kind of poised, deliberate finish only great Nebbiolo vintages deliver. A serious classical Barolo to drink with food or to lay down.