Scrutinizing list after list of wine offerings from importers and wineries gets you accustomed to recognizing some “golden opportunities” on those rare occasions that they pop up. That said, the sad truth is that once you get that gem of a find in front of you the wine itself tends to disappoint–there’s a reason it’s just sitting on a list! But that was emphatically, 100% NOT the case with today’s discovery. I was a bit hopeful, I’ll admit, because the vineyard and vintage were excellent. That said, this wine was easily one of the most expressive and impressive Nebbiolos I’ve tasted in a very long time. Full of classic black cherries, roses, tar and spice, this beauty pulls off that very rare trick of tasting neither young, nor old, just perfect. I would happily pay triple digits for this experience, but instead you can immerse yourself in Barolo bliss for less than $60 . . . pounce!

Cascina Amalia is a little over two decades old, which in Piedmont makes it a brand spanking new infant. Yet, in just twenty two years the Boffa family has managed to make a lasting impression on their adopted home. It started in 2003 when Maria Angela Brosio and her husband Luigi Antonio Boffa purchased a 100 year old farmhouse near Monforte d’Alba and the surrounding land, which included a small vineyard. They quickly fell in love with the culture, food, and of course world famous wine that surrounded them. After converting the farmhouse into a bed and breakfast, they built a cellar next door and began making their own wine as well. In 2007 Maria and Luigi’s son Paolo, a passionate oenophile, joined the team as the winery manager.

Around the same time the Boffas had the great fortune to purchase two additional plots in what are some of Monforte’s top “Grand Cru” sites: Bussia and Le Coste. This brought their total vineyard area to seven hectares, which is where it remains today. Bussia is a name that is well known to even casual Barolo aficionados–it’s a large cru with some excellent and highly acclaimed parcels, and we’ve featured various versions many times in our offers. Le Coste, or as it is often labeled now “Le Coste di Monforte,” is much smaller and sits at the very southeastern corner of Monforte d’Alba, and as such at the very border of the Barolo DOCG itself. But, this hidden gem is actually very well known among insiders, owing much of its fame to the fact that it was almost certainly the source for the very earliest versions of Giacomo Conterno’s iconic masterpiece “Monfortino.”

Le Coste has a high concentration of ancient limestone, with fossilized marine life much as you find in parts of Burgundy, that is mixed with sandstone and very little clay. This leads to wines that have a bit more elegance and lift than their neighbors to the north, but there is still oodles of Monforte power and depth here too. Paolo’s first vintage of Le Coste was 2010, and judging by today’s 2013 he got things exactly right from the start. That begins with farming, and the Amalia estate has been organic and eco-certified from the beginning. The winemaking is traditional with a few modern touches: De-stemmed Nebbiolo is fermented and macerated in steel tanks for several weeks before being racked into large, mostly neutral French oak barrels for a long aging period of close to three years, and then further aging in bottle. 

So, how have we managed to score a bit of the excellent 2013 vintage? It’s a simple story. A local importer of Italian wine began working with Cascina Amalia in the early aughts. His passion and palate are impeccable, but he was less motivated to actually move the wine into restaurants and retail shops. Eventually though his distributor convinced him it was time to sell some of the treasures he was hoarding, and that is how we secured a small lot (just a few cases!). Serve this perfectly preserved beauty at cellar temperature after a gentle decanting and you’ll get a rush of peak Nebbiolo brilliance: Black and red cherries, Damson plums, kirsch, dried roses, tar, blood orange peel, leather, wild fennel, dried porcini, and a bit of savory allspice. It’s drinking beautifully now but I’m sure it has another decade at least of prime time left. Serve with a classic Piemonte inspired dish and smile knowing you have more bottles stashed away (you do, right?!?).