Roagna’s 2004 Barolo Vigna Rionda remains a mystery to me. I have tasted four bottles of this wine and found some variation. My first bottle was extraordinary, but subsequent bottles have been far less exciting. The wine possesses lovely liqueur-like fruit woven into suggestions of dried roses, spices and licorice. The best bottle reminded me of some of the greatest Vigna Riondas I have ever had in its freshness and structure, while other bottles have been more advanced, and while still pretty, lacking the sheer perfume and verve of the great bottle. That said, Nebbiolo can be a perplexing wine and some of the bottles may have just been shut down, so only time will tell which is the real Roagna Vigna Rionda. My best advice is to suggest that readers taste this wine before making any major commitments. This Barolo Vigna Rionda was vinified by Canale with the help of Luca Roagna. The wine saw a relatively short (by Roagna standards) maceration time of 60 days followed by roughly two years in oak. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2029. This is a fascinating set of wines from Roagna, a historic estate in Barbaresco that is once again gaining the visibility and recognition it deserves. Proprietor Luca Roagna is young, humble and incredibly passionate about preserving his family’s traditional approach to making wine. The estate works with old vines, which are trained to ripen late. In the cellar, macerations are very long and aging takes place primarily in French oak casks. Roagna is one of Italy’s most promising young producers and his future looks to be very bright. This year, as last, I found some of the wines not fully perfect in their aromatics, with notes of woodiness that suggest the wines may be spending too much time in barrel. According to Luca Roagna, these aromas and flavors can be attributed to the new barrels the estate began using around 2000. Still, my sense is that the wines could achieve an entirely different level of quality if a few years of the barrel aging were replaced with time in bottle. Importer: Louis Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334-8191

Vigna Rionda is among the finest crus in the Serralunga d’Alba area with 40- to 60-year-old vines and this producer takes a traditional approach to Barolo. It opens with a slightly brownish hue and seems older than the vintage thanks to aromas of old spice, used leather and dried herbs. The mouthfeel is raw, but firm.——M.L.(4/1/2009)—— 88