Nervi-Conterno Gattinara Vigna Molsino 2016 / 750 ml.

Tasted next to the Valferana, the 2016 Gattinara Vigna Molsino is much more nervous in feel. Iron, dried herbs, sweet dried cherry, mint, crushed rocks, white pepper and earthy notes give the Molsino a good deal of aromatic complexity to match its intense, saline-infused minerality. Today, though, the tannins and acids are almost overpowering. Readers will find an old-school, classically austere Gattinara that needs 10–15 years to be at its best. The 2016 is an absolute jewel of a wine, but it should be purchased only by readers with either very good genes are a ton of optimism regarding their own longevity.

This wine was not produced in 2017, so the next vintage in this mini vertical is the 2016 Gattinara Vigna Molsino. The name “Molsino” is a dialect derivative of the Italian word for “soft,” and it comes from the pretty contours of the hills that characterize the Gattinara landscape and the warm, lightly windy and sunny microclimate that this specific growing site enjoys. Indeed, the wine offers rich fruit flavors of wild berry and blackcurrant with solid structure and firmness. Pretty notes of pressed violet, earth and iron ore also appear. This Nebbiolo plays a hand similar to Barolo in terms of its inner power and its superior aging potential.