The 2003 Barolo is loaded with flavor as well as character. It offers sweet aromatics, dark ripe fruit and mentholated, balsamic overtones with notable intensity and vibrancy. This outstanding wine simply needs a few years to settle down a bit. It is a superb effort at this level. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2018. Giampaolo Pira’s style favors rich, super concentrated expressions of Nebbiolo. In 2003 that could have been a recipe for over the top wines, except that Pira is based in Serralunga and therefore had the benefit of working with some of the sites that were among the most favored in this vintage. The only exception is his Vigna Rionda, which is made from a parcel he replanted just a few years ago, and where the vines clearly struggled. Pira favors a mix of small and medium size French oak barrels along with medium-size casks for most of his wines, and keeps the percentage of new oak between 20-25%. Only the Vigna Rionda is aged exclusively in small new French oak barrels. A Marc de Grazia Selection, various American importers, including Michael Skurnik, Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300, Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700, and Estate Wines, Ltd., San Rafael, CA; tel. (415) 492-9411