2010 Barbaresco Pajè Vecchie Viti

Luca Roagna's 2010s are gorgeous across the board. Roagna has made some important improvements over the last few years. The new cellar in Castiglione Falletto has plenty of space, while investments in higher quality corks are sure to pay off with less bottle variation. Perhaps most importantly, though, Roagna has moved up the bottling times for some of his wines, so that most of the wines from a given vintage are released at the same time. The only thing that is missing from these wines is a little bit of freshness (see the Asili) and a touch more finesse in the tannins, although I must say the 2010s have softened considerably since I first tasted them over the summer, when they had just been bottled. Sadly, prices for these wines have gone up considerably, especially for the small-production wines. Savvy readers should seek out the straight 2010 Barbaresco Pajé and Barolo Pira.