The 2006 Barolo flows from the glass with red fruit, herbs, spices and flowers in an attractive, mid-weight style. The tannins are delicate as they frame a soft, lovely finish. This entry-level offering is a touch herbal for my taste, but possesses terrific balance compared to other wines in its category. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2021. I was deeply impressed with the wines I tasted from Marco Parusso this year. Parusso gambled and left the fruit hanging until late October, when he brought in the last of the Nebbiolo crop. The 2006 Barolos were vinified first in steel, then racked into French oak, where the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations were completed. The wines spent 24 months on their lees prior to being bottled. Marco Parusso is one of Piedmont’s most relentless explorers, and every new vintage seems to bring with it a twist. Parusso is among the few producers increasing the amount of new French oak in his Barolos and has begun experimenting with the partial use of stems in vinification, an approach no one else to my knowledge in using in Piedmont. Importer: Montecastelli Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 414-4898