2021 Giacosa Fratelli Barolo

Giacosa Fratelli is a fourth-generation family winery in the heart of Piedmont, and the name has been synonymous with serious Barolo for over a century. In 1895 Giuseppe Giacosa was a sharecropper working the hills of Langhe alongside his brothers, dreaming of owning a winery they could not afford. He won the lottery with numbers he dreamed, bought the cellar with the winnings, and passed it down father to son, brother to cousins, for the next 130 years.

This 2021 combines fruit from the family's various Barolo sites, with Bricco San Pietro in Monforte as the largest component — hillside Nebbiolo vinified in the traditional style and aged in large Slovenian oak. It reflects the house signature: structure built for the cellar, classic aromatics, zero extraction. James Suckling scored it 94 points and called it "very perfumed, with a complex array of aromas reminiscent of dried flowers, orange rind, sliced peaches and red fruits, as well as an earthy undertone. Really lovely." He notes the palate is medium- to full-bodied with fine yet grippy tannins and a precise thread of fruit that emerges once the tannins recede, and suggests the wine will be better from 2029.

This is not a wine built for immediate gratification. It drinks beautifully tonight alongside a proper bistecca, but it is built for the cellar — high natural acidity, structured tannins, and the classic Barolo aromatics of dried rose, cherry, tar, and iron mineral that only deepen with time. At under $50 a bottle for 94-point Barolo from one of the top names in the appellation, the value here is exceptional.

You will not find this wine at most US retailers. It arrives here through a direct-ship relationship, and this is the only place in the country where you can get it without flying to Piedmont first.