2020 Gattinara

I have visited Nervi several times over the years, but it was the visit just after Roberto Conterno acquired the estate that sticks in my mind most because even then, the vision for what would follow was evident. Since then, Conterno and his team have made a series of stellar wines. There are three Gattinaras in the range. The straight Gattinara is the most approachable of the wines and is therefore released a year earlier, although aging for all three wines is three years in wood. The two vineyard designates – Molsino and Valferrana – offer different shades of complexity, finesse and intensity, depending on the year. The Molsino is the first of the two single vineyards to ripen and can be a bigger wine, while the Valferrana ripens later because of its somewhat more sheltered position. All three were memorable.

Readers often ask if the Nervi wines are of comparable quality to the Barolos. I don’t think of wine as a competition. Some vintages may favor one appellation over another, the most striking example being 2018, when the Nervi wines were quite a bit more complex than the Conterno Barolos. Aside from those cases, the wines from the two estates can absolutely stand side by side. In fact, that is how I taste them every year.