One of Italy' Smallest Producers - 94 Points for the 2016 from Galloni/Vinous, A Beautiful Gem in Bramaterra for Under $40

 A Collection of Small Gems
 - There Are Great New Producers in Alto Piemonte
 - They Are Almost All Too Small for Regular Importers
 - I Don't Care If I Can Only Sell a Few Cases
 - I Want You All to Have Them
 - Today's Winery Makes Fewer Than 1,400 Bottles

2017 La Psigula Bramaterra
 - The Smallest Producer in Bramaterra
 - If Quazzolo (Langhe) Made Bramaterra
 - Nose: Ethereal/Like Volnay 1er Cru
 - Floral, Expansive and Delicate
 - Loads of Tar and Tobacco
 - Cherries, Cherry Flower, Mineral and Sour Cherry
 - Layered and Haunting. Like Volnay 1er Cru
 - The Savory Cherry Spice Melange You Get in Elite Barolo
 - Aggressively Infiltrates the Nose

 - Palate: Loads of Energy and Purity
 - Rich and Decadent but with Cutting Acids
 - Terrific Inner Mouth Florals
 - So Well Made - No Hard Edges
 - Terrific Palate Vivacity and Juiciness
 - Balancing Spice and A Hint of Chocolate
 - Ripe and Rich but Ephemeral and Deep
 - The Savoriness You Get in High End Nebbiolo
 - Long, Long Finish An Hour In
 - 94 Points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous, $37.99 (2016)

 - LIMITED/ALLOCATED

A Collection of Gems

I'm working on assembling a collection of small gems in Alto Piemonte.  I'm trying to make sure that each of them is a little different. Today's winery is a a completely different ballgame. This is a micro, micro production winery.  Which means that they can give a tremendous amount of focus on each vine and maximize the ripeness of the fruit.  So you get:

 - a combination of the traditional aromatic expression that we love in Alto Piemonte and

 -  some of the best, most precise fruit clarity of any wine we've sold from the region. It reminds me of our cult Langhe producer Danilo Quazzolo. Like if he made wine in Bramaterra. That's a very high compliment if you have tasted the brilliant wines of Quazzolo.

This, like the wines of 95 point La Badina and cult favorite Henrik Mobitz, is a passion project. You can't earn back the hours spent on a wine of this price. So please enjoy these wines. These wines are treasures. Antonio Galloni just gave today's wine 94 Pts and his review is below.

"The 2016 Bramaterra from La Psigula is a wine of haunting beauty. Dark and mysterious, the 2016 offers an intriguing mélange of black cherry, spice, leather, licorice and Amaro herbs. The 2016 is a dense, broad wine, but it is not at all overdone. It spent 24 months in cask. A bit of oak influence remains, but that is a minor quibble at this level. La Psigula's Bramaterra is one of the most distinctive wines I tasted this year. Don't miss it. Sadly, there are fewer than 1,400 bottles." - 94 Points, Antonio Galloni, VINOUS (2016)

Bramaterra, An Interlude

We are quietly assembling the best portfolio of Alto Piemonte wines in the states, bar none.  I'd like to say that I'm just that good, but really it's a confluence of events that has landed this in my lap.

 - There is tremendous interest by a new generation of growers who love the region and want to make wine there.

 - These growers are starting out and are very, very small.  So they spend a huge amount of effort making stunning wines but...

 - ...there is not enough wine for even small regional distributors to sell - you can't have a 3 tier distributor with salespeople running around selling a 60 bottle allocation. 

So basically, these ridiculously great producers just fall in my lap.  I'm well known in Alto Piemonte for being an absolute freak for the wines and I just get E-Mails and they send samples and I sell the smallest producers in Alto Piemonte and by far the smallest producer in Bramaterra. They are also the youngest and newest producer in Bramaterra. There are only 10 producers now in Bramaterra and we have two. Bramaterra is to the west of Ghemme and Gattinara. For me the signature of Brameterra is finesse, spice and structure, versus something like Gattinara or Fara which are more about power. Their weight is more like what the Langhe wines used to have 30 years ago before global warming as they are a bit further north (and the soil is so poor).

La Psigula

Giacomo and Claudia Foglia's La Psigula is a dream come true for them. Claudia is a schoolteacher and Giacomo is a surveyor and they both still have their day jobs. Their first vintage was 2014 which is a difficult vintage for your first vintage  in Alto Piemonte but then they made a brilliant wines in 2015/2016 now we have the 2017 which is maybe their greatest accomplishment yet. Yes 2017 is warm in the Langhe as we know but 2017 is more brilliant in Alto Piemonte. When it is warm in the Langhe like in 15 or 17 it is a much better in the cooler Alto Piemonte. The most compelling young Alto Piemonte vintage I've tasted so far but also one that will be great from day 1. The wines have a thrilling character with so much energy, transparency and fruit you can't believe how inexpensive the wine is plus they are supple and succulent. 

The wine is the 2017 La Psigula Bramaterra for $37.99 a bottle on a 4-pack.

It is made from 25% 70+ year old vines and 75% 10-15 year old vines. The vineyard has stunning sun

exposition. The vineyard and vine age has to explain the unbelievable depth of this wine. It is so deep and this, to my palate, seems like this will be a 20+ year wine. This has impressed me like no other newcomer in Alto Piemonte has since La Badina, which just got 95 points from Antonio Galloni at Vinous. Now this gets 94 and I knew La Psigula was a star. This is the closest I've ever had to Volnay in Piedmont. But old school d'Angerville Volnay. 

The nose. This wine needs like 10 minutes to get going and then whoah. Floral, expansive and delicate nose with  loads of tar and tobacco. Mid to end of season cherries, cherry flower, mineral and sour cherry abound. Fragrant off the bat but really needs 10-15 minutes to get going and it becomes ethereal. I was blown away by the nose. Ethereal is the best word. Gorgeous wet leaves and a Burgundian sensibility. Layered and haunting. Like Volnay 1er Cru.  On day 2, like a haunted forest. Like wow. Dark flowers and vivid black cherries. Dried tea leaves. Damson. Smoke. Glorious wine..

Rich and decadent palate yet with cutting acids, bonkers energy, big black and red cherry fruit and soft, caressing but substantial tannins. Loads of energy and purity. This wine just engages your palate like nothing else. Terrific inner mouth florals with great balance and juiciness. Lovely very high  tannin quality and awesome ethereal and haunting finesse. This is terrific.  After some air this becomes more compact, even more energetic, fresher  and more complete. Brilliant wine. No hard edges and super engaging mid palate which crashes into a painfully intense tiny berry fruited finish with glorious sap and structure. Incredible. On day 2, palate is ripe and rich but ephemeral and deep. Big ripe tannins. That contrast is what makes this wine so enraging. The richness matches the energy and they spar on your palate. Tons of sap and purity. Will age beautifully. Very refined and very well made wine. This is an extremely important new voice in Bramaterra and they will be a force to be reckoned with.

This will age 15-20 years and will provide thrilling drinking the whole time.

2017 La Psigula Bramaterra - $39.99 ($151.96 4-Pack)