Opening to a dark garnet color, the 2010 Barolo Brunate exhibits a great deal of focus and clarity that is further reinforced by the mineral character of the wine. Dark fruit, balsam herb, cola, spice and black tar peel off in generous layers. Like all of Voerzio’s wines this vintage, the Brunate shows a steady firmness of structure that is uncommon in 2010 (his plant density is a whopping 7,000 vines per hectare, a strong factor in terms of mouthfeel). Drink: 2017-2035. Roberto Voerzio started buying prized vineyard parcels in 1982 and has since amassed one of the most important portfolios of single-vineyards (15 parcels over totaling 12 hectares) in La Morra (with Sarmassa and a piece of Cerequio in the neighboring township of Barolo). He follows a unique winemaking philosophy that is somewhere on the spectrum between traditionalists and modernist, but Roberto himself brushes off these broad stroke categories with a shrug and a smile. “In the years between 2003 and 2007, my approach to oak changed over and over. I went from larger containers to smaller ones and back again to larger,” he says: “Ultimately no one really noticed. What is noticeable however is his non-interventionist’s approach. He uses ambient years without sulfites for the fermentations followed by spontaneous malolactic fermentations and does not filter. He also chooses different bottle formats to represent each wine (with a generous array of large format bottles) and sells them in meticulously numbered lots. Fossati was latest acquisition with 20 and 30 years vines. Importer: Winebow, www.winebow.com