The 1998 Barolo Riserva La Rocca e La Pira is a perplexing wine. Here, too, the aromas aren’t perfectly clean, but unlike some of the other wines in this lineup, those notes appear on the palate as well. The wine offers excellent density and richness in its dark plums, cherries, leather and spices, but there are some impurities that are most likely the case of the wine having spent too much time in oak that are accentuated in a smaller vintage such as 1998. The Riserva La Rocca e La Pira is made from vines with an average age of 70 years. The wine saw 85 days of maceration in wood vats followed by eight years in oak. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2018. 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

Here is a carefully aged Barolo Riserva from the Pira cru (also known as La Rocca) with dark concentration backed by rose petal, hickory smoke, root beer, wet stone and moist mineral notes. It’s a big, bold and masculine interpretation with an elegant, dusty mouthfeel and polished tannins. Drink now with pork stuffed with wild mushrooms.——M.L.(4/1/2009)—— 90

The 1997 Barolo Riserva La Rocca e La Pira is loaded with ripe dark fruit, leather, tobacco, cedar and spice nuances. It offers outstanding length as well as balance in a style that captures the sweet, seductive style of the vintage. Although it retains good freshness for its age I wonder if a shorter stay in oak might have been beneficial in this hot vintage. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2017. Luca Roagna is one of the most promising young winemakers in the Langhe. Low yields, late harvests, long macerations and extended periods of oak aging are the rule at this traditionally-minded estate. Historically Barolo and Barbaresco were left to macerate on the skins until around the Christmas holidays, a practice unheard of today but still followed here. The normal bottlings of Barolo and Barbaresco typically see around 50 days of maceration while the selections may see as many as 75 days. The wines then undergo a lengthy sojourn in oak which allows them to develop the tertiary notes that the estate seeks. The wines spend an additional year to year and a half of bottle age before being released. I have mixed feelings about the long oak aging the estate prefers. In some cases the wines have the stuffing to stand up to extended periods in oak, but in other cases I can't help thinking the wines would retain more fruit and freshness if they were bottled earlier. The wines are also very delicate and don't respond well to sudden movement or temperature changes immediately prior to serving. I have had my best luck letting them gradually warm from cold cellar temperature and opening them several hours before serving. Readers who appreciated traditionally made wines should be sure to put Roagna on their radar screens. Importer: Louis Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334-8191