2017 Luigi Ferrando Carema "Etichetta Nera" Piedmont

The Etichetta Nera is Ferrando's 'Reserve' bottling, only produced in special vintages, and always the greatest wine he makes. This is arguably the greatest bottle of Alpine Nebbiolo you can get your hands on.

Have you been in love with Barolo and Barbaresco years and you're ready for something new? This is alpine Nebbiolo from the Carema DOCG in the far North of Piedmont. The beauty of these wines is that they offer the intense rose petal and tar aromatics of Barolo, but with the finesse and elegance of Burgundy. Famed importer Neal Rosenthal when asked what wine he would drink if he were left to choose only one, his answer...Carema.

The Ferrandos only produce their legendary black-label Carema when the vintage allows for it, and it never comprises more than a fifth of their total production. To be labeled as 'Etichetta Nera,' the wine must first be selected in the vineyard as worthy; then, it must pass muster post-malolactic-fermentation; and finally, a third verification is performed at the end of the three-year elevage. Raised entirely in a mix of used 250- and 500-liter French barrels, the 2017 is more profound and lower-pitched on the nose than its white-label counterpart, with blacker fruit and a stronger savory imprint. Its firmly gripping, lengthily tunneling finish promises decades of positive evolution.

Produced exclusively from the Nebbiolo grape planted in a series of vineyards that sit beneath the Swiss Alp's Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco). These grapes sit in a broad amphitheatre with full southern exposure overlooking the river, Dora Baltea, that runs from the snow-capped mountains south through the Valle d'Aosta into the northwest of Piedmont.