Drinking a good Barolo is a real commitment. Besides committing to spending a good amount of money on the bottle, you are also committed to waiting 10 to 20 years for the wine to mature properly. Even then, you need to plan a proper meal to compliment the hollowed wine for the evening, maybe even inviting over some friends, which also means you have to clean up for the evening, not just your body but your humble abode as well. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. But if you are still jonesing for a good Nebbiolo grape wine, used in making Barolo, from the Langhe region in Italy, the region where the best Barolo is from, you should consider drinking Batasiolo Langhe Nebbiolo. A better choice of wine while waiting for your big Barolo's to calm down in the bottle, and you can enjoy it in comfortable clothes while playing Twister with your friends. OK, my days of Twister are over, but you get my point. This is every day, softer, more accessible, highly rated Nebbiolo wine without pretensions. 

The Nebbiolo grape is an unusual grape to make wine from. Some would call it a difficult grape to vinify. It flowers early, ripens late, and can struggle to ripen fully. It also prefers specific hillside locations and clay- and silt-based soils. It is also considered a "terroir-expressive" variety in that it picks up more of the earth, soil, and climate characteristics versus other grapes, which means it can taste wildly different depending on where it's grown. The color of the wine is misleading; even though the wine can be massive and tannic, the wine's hugh fades very quickly. Speaking wine geek, the Nebbiolo skins have anthocyanins (water-soluble pigments) that contain few stable colorants and more easily oxidized peonidin and cyanidin glycosides, resulting in a rapidly decolorizing wine over a short period of time. In short, your monster-flavored, tannic Barolo can look like an old Pinot Noir in the glass. It is also a rare wine; even though Nebbiolo only makes up ~8% of all the grapes grown in Piedmont, more of this grape is grown here than anywhere else.

In 1978, the Dogliani family purchased the historic Kiola Winery and Batasiolo Hills in Piedmont. This purchase included two beni in the internationally renowned zone for growing the celebrated Nebbiolo da Barolo grape. In the Piedmontese dialect, "beni" means farmhouse with vineyards, and when the Dogliani family purchased the estate, there were seven "beni," and now there are nine. So as not to be confused with the Dogliani growing region, the family named their company Beni di Batasiolo after the central vineyard where the winery and cellar are located. Beni di Batasiolo is the largest family-owned wine producer in Italy's Piedmont region. Since 1978, the winery has grown to encompass over 320 acres of vineyards. Today, Beni de Batasiolo owns some of the finest cru Barolo and Barbaresco plots in Piedmont, where the best Nebbiolo in the world is grown.

The grapes used for Batasiolo Langhe Nebbiolo come from the young vines of the same vineyards as their Barolo and Barbaresco that do not make the cut to go into their grander wines and from outside the vineyard limits. The upside is that the wines made from these Nebbiolo grapes are softer and more accessible and not a wine of tannic austerity that can take years of aging to soften, such as the exalted wine of Kings, Barolo. Even if they lack the intensity, dimensionality, and age-worthiness of the more expensive wines, they still convey the essential characteristics of the Nebbiolo. This wonderful grape seems to prosper only in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. No one does Nebbiolo better than the Dogliani family, the third-generation owners of Beni di Batasiolo.

Fiorenzo Dogliani, CEO of the Dogliani family's Beni di Batasiolo winery, runs the family enterprise, Batasiolo SPA. In the late 1950s, Fiorenzo is credited with reaching beyond the borders of Piedmont to market the family's wines to restaurateurs in nearby Milan. It was this bold first move that established a presence for the company's wines on the domestic market and foreshadowed Fiorenzo's future role as an evangelist for the Piedmont region on the world market.  Fiorenzo was among the first Piedmontese winegrowers to travel extensively to promote his wines. Fiorenzo's early efforts helped raise visibility for the company's long-lived Barolo and Barbaresco wines and establish a reputation for quality, one that is rigorously pursued at Batasiolo. By 1979, he was traveling to New York and Toronto, introducing the trade and consumers alike to the joys of Nebbiolo, way before Barolo was a household name. Fiorenzo's efforts helped speed the evolution of American palates at the time towards the appreciation of dry, sophisticated wines. 

"The Dogliani family has always been in the world of wine, and with them began the work of modernizing the vineyards, mass selections of Nebbiolo, and restructuring the cellar in order to have full control of the supply chain." Gabriele Pezzuto, export manager "The 'family' factor is very important, because it makes wine a generational conversation. Here you have the pulse of your territory and try to better interpret the vintages, tackling all those variables ranging from problems such as global warming and drought to the characteristics of the individual vineyard in micro-vinifications."  

Destemming and fermentation with maceration on the skins for 10 days in stainless steel vats at controlled temperature, with periodic pumping-over.

Aged in Slavonian oak casks for about six months followed by ageing in stainless steel vats.

A wine of variable, deep ruby red colour that acquires garnet tinges with age. The nose shows intense and delicate hints of ripe fruit that evolve into spicy notes with subtle floral nuances. The palate is full-bodied, tannic, and pleasantly cool. Good intensity and persistence are other good features.

Super clean nebbiolo with red cherries and berries, fresh acidity, fine and lightly firm tannins and a fruity and nutty finish. James Suckling 91 pts

Batasiolo Langhe Nebbiolo 2019

Tim, John, and I tried this wine, and we all found the wine really good. Most times, in tasting Nebbiolo wine like Barolo or Barbaresco, you feel that you need food to justify drinking the wine. Batasiolo Langhe Nebbiolo is delightful on its own and would go well with a broader range of foods. The color, as you would expect, is semi-opaque garnet. Earth plum and blackberry in the nose with lots of dark black fruit, tea, and dried orange. The acids and tannins work together to make the fruit juicy—medium-dried orange finish. If you are a Barolo lover, you need this wine to enjoy for those non-Barolo times. This is an Italian wine lover's dream. As always, availability is limited.

Regular Price: $29.99

*Sale Price is on 6 or more bottles

Wine is packed in a 12-bottle case

Very limited quantity

*Wine pricing for these wine promotions are held for two weeks after the email offer.

We can hold wines in unpaid reserves for two weeks to allow you time to pick up your wine. If it takes you longer than that to pick up your wines, give us a call, and we can process your wine and move it to paid reserves.

Orders must be done by replying to this email. The reason is that I need to keep control of the inventory in one central spot. Emailing or calling your favorite wine geek at one of our four stores may not get your orders in on time to be counted or processed and this creates a helter-skelter for us to get you the wine. For the same reason, ordering on our online Web Store is linked to our regular price, and this sale price is only offered on the email platform. It is also why it takes me some time to respond due to the deluge of orders that I sometimes get. We haven't reached the efficiency or volume of Amazon yet. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Attleboro

628 Washington St.

Norwood

942 Providence Hgwy.

Sturbridge

376 Main Street.

Swansea

207 Swansea Mall Dr.

Monday-Saturday

9AM to 9PM