2013 Roagna, Barbaresco, Asili Vecchie Viti

The Asili vineyard was purchased in 1961, and today the youngest vines are 80 years old. This is the central part of the cru, or what Luca Roagna calls the most "classic" part of the vineyard site. In a series of three old-vine Barbaresco expressions, ordered according to growing level of intensity, the 2013 Barbaresco Asili Vecchie Viti is the first wine we tasted together. The bouquet here is nuanced and delicate with an evident mineral signature that is followed by ever-increasing—but extremely elegant throughout—berry fruit and blue flower aromas. The wine covers the palate fully, remaining light, firm and tense throughout. The Roagna family traces its genetic roots to Barbaresco (as opposed to Barolo) and these wines are of enormous symbolic importance to them. Consequently, they are a point of pride among those who so passionately collect them and put them aside to age in their cellars.

The 2013 Barbaresco Asili Vecchie Viti is a promising wine, but readers will have to be patient, as there is little of the charm that makes Asili so alluring. Firm and unyielding, the 2013 is going to need time to fully settle down, but it has terrific depth and persistence to burn. Time in the glass brings out the wine's inner sweetness, but the 2013 is a wine to bury deep in the corner of the cellar. Hints of rosewater, orange peel, cinnamon and amaro herbs grace the beguiling finish. What a pretty wine this is.

Starts out with balsamic notes of juniper, olive and sun-dried tomato surrounding a core of wild cherry. Finishes with assertive tannins, but the intense fruit lingers. Patience is required. BS