Produttori del Barbaresco, Barbaresco Riserva Rio Sordo, 1990

Legendary vintage, legendary cooperative, museum-piece bottle. The 1990 Barbaresco vintage is among the most celebrated in modern Piedmont, and Produttori del Barbaresco's single-cru Riservas from that year are stuff of cellar legend. Rio Sordo sits in a slightly cooler bowl on the southwest-facing slope, the kind of geographic pocket that warms slowly and holds onto acidity, producing Barbaresco built more on freshness, purity and balance than sheer muscle. Thirty-five years on, this Riserva drinks like vintage Burgundy in spirit: perfumed, pure, vibrant, with a dark brick color and aromatic lift that still feels remarkably youthful. A fully mature bottle to open with reverence and a slow carafe.