The 2019 vintage in Piemonte is on the minds of Nebbiolo maniacs around the world. Blessed with intensity and concentration, the wines of the top producers are bound for incredibly long, delicious lives and the scores in the press and the prices in the market clearly reflect this deserved excitement.

And today we will stay in Piedmont, but depart from the classic zone of Langhe for a drive high into the hills north of Turin, where Piemonte becomes Alto Piemonte. In particular, we get to the tiny AOC of Carema, and its very famous producer, Luigi Ferrando. Here too 2019 was a legend of a vintage, and maybe even better than in the Langhe, for the mountain freshness up here managed to preserve even more of Nebbiolo’s natural energy.

Farming a tiny 2.5 hectare amphitheater of vineyards in the shadow of Mont Blanc, Luigi Ferrando produces a truly great expression of this Mountain Nebbiolo. Following strictly traditional techniques, the wines are aged for 3 years in old barrels of various sizes (depending on the volume of the vintage) bottled unfiltered and aged for another year in the bottle before release. The wines sing with a unique voice full of fresh, taught, mineral driven Nebbiolo fruit supported by vivacious acidity and ripe, cool tannin that will give the 2019's the ability for decades.

With such beauty and intensity of flavor, Piemontese wine lovers would seek out these extraordinary bottles regardless of cost. Lucky for us, the wines of Luigi Ferrando still provide excellent value.

Ferrando Carema Etichetta Bianca 2019 $89.99