With the black label, the 2017 Barolo Riserva Lazzarito is the most concentrated of these new wines from Ettore Germano, and it's also the wine from the hottest growing season. The 15% alcohol content reminds you of this fact. The bouquet is velvety and rich with plenty of dark fruit and spice. The wine is well put together and definitely quite robust and muscular in character. The tannins are smooth and the mouthfeel is open-knit and accessible. Only 4,500 bottles were created.

This is a special wine packaged with a distinctive black label. The Ettore Germano 2016 Barolo Riserva Lazzarito is a true beauty with lovely fruit, dried cherry, plum, toasted spice, black tar and pressed rose. The wine is just beginning to show some elegant evolution with licorice and campfire ash, and you feel extra smoothness on the finish.

The 2015 Barolo Riserva Lazzarito (with fruit from Serralunga d'Alba) shows a generous, full-bodied consistency, with dark fruit, spice, baking clove and other dustings of exotic spice, such as cardamom and clove. That spiciness washes through the bouquet, and you can feel it on the palate, where the wine is structured and firm. Some 4,500 bottles were released.