Rizzi Barbaresco DOCG 2017

Young Piedmontese nebbiolo can be a bit divisive with its ‘pay attention to me’ tannins, and fruit hiding in the background like an awkward teenager. But if you don’t have the patience to wait a decade for the beauty to emerge, then this might be the wine you are looking for.

Initially there are lifted aromatics of dried rose and violet petals pressed between the pages of a leather-bound journal. Bright cranberries, red currants and black plums fill the glass, and with time, an earthy, graphite-rock baking in the sun emerges.

There’s no lurking teenager here; plush red and black plum flavours give a hint of the future for this wine. Tannin ricochets around the mouth like an enthusiastic 4 year old (which it is) but they are fine dancing tannins and don’t dominate. Lovely palate weight reminds you to take your time, decant, linger. 

Drink this in a lush drawing room on a leather sofa with toasted brioche and lashings of mushroom pâté. 

Nicole Bilson

Wine Critic at Winepilot

Nicole loves wine. So much so that she gave up a successful career in Pharmacy, perfected her spitting technique, and moved from sunny Queensland to the wine-drenched laneways of Melbourne. Stints in hospitality, wineries, retail, sales and marketing filled the next few years while Nicole built her knowledge and searched for the right path. She completed the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Diploma in 2016 and became a certified WSET Educator the following year. She now juggles a number of roles including teaching people about wine, curating wines lists for restaurants and bars, judging in Australian wine shows and, of course, writing. In 2016 she won the Negociants Working With Wine writing award and has since contributed to Gourmet Traveller WINE, Halliday Wine Companion Magazine and Nourish Magazine.

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