Marchesi Alfieri Costa Quaglia Nebbiolo

If you’ve been a customer of Prince Wine Store for any length of time then you’ll know that Marchesi Alfieri hold a special place in our wine hearts. They make some of the greatest Barbera in Italy (certainly within Piemonte, restaurateurs and other producers will tell you so without hesitation); La Tota, Alfiera and the uber-rare bottling, Carlo, are as good as you’ll find. This year, I found something different here, a superb nebbiolo!

It's not the first time I’ve seen the estate’s nebbiolo, Costa Quaglia – its long lived the life of Cindarella in the shadows of the all-conquering barberas - but the 2020 is finally starting to deliver on winemaker, Mario Olivetti’s original vision. It’s truly something special and to put it into perspective, this is a wine that falls outside the big name areas of Barbaresco and Barolo or even Roero, so to be noticed it has to sear a palate impression into the taster, and that it does.  

The wine comes off the main hillside vineyard of the estate – Costa Quaglia. The south facing portion of which contributes fruit to the estate’s main barberas but also there’s a section devoted to nebbiolo, planted by Olivetti 20 years ago in the belief the soil composition and aspects were perfect for the variety. 

No surprise there, Olivetti is a master craftsman; methodical, devoted to great fruit and detail-driven winemaking and always, always searching for improvement and new challenges. Like his wines, he is admired across Piemonte. 

As I said earlier, this nebbiolo is a beautiful example, believe me when I tell you, that in the current climate I was not predisposed to start introducing outlier nebbiolo into the country but in the end, the quality won me over. 

Like all Olivero’s wines, the Quaglia shows his vision for the variety is clear as a bell. Aromatics are detailed and vivid; strawberry, currants and cherry. A siren-song of sweet spices, crushed flowers and mineral float in and out of view. The tannin is ripe and subsumed into the wine, providing a scaffold and creating energy. It’s elegant but emphatic. It's as good as any nebbiolo d’alba or d’asti you’ll find at such a good price. 

Cheers
Michael