"And Greater Still" - The Winner of Our Blind Barbaresco Tasting - His 2016 from the Legendary Vintage Is His Best Ever - The Riserva Is Greater Still

Ugo Lequio
 - Making Terrific Wines
 - These Are Serious, Serious Undiscovered Gems
 - Old, Old School, He Doesn't Market Much 
 - This Is By Far the Best Wine of His We've Ever Tasted
 - In a Long List of Very, Very Good Wines

2016 Vintage
 - Jancis Robinson Calls It a Game Changer 
 - Stunning Transparency

"The 2016s confirm all of the promise they have always shown. It is a stunning, brilliant vintage across the board."- Antonio Galloni

2016 Ugo Lequio Barbaresco Gallina Riserva
 - From A Vineyard Formerly Used to Make Bruno Giacosa
 - 67 Year Old Vines
 - A Fantastic Vintage - So Far a Legend in the Making
 - "Greater Still" - the Regular 2016 Was His Best Wine Ever
 - The 2016 Riserva Is Greater Still

 - Nose -As Gorgeous As You Can Get from Barbaresco
 - Whirling Cherry Flowers
 - So Dense and Intense
 - Sweet Cherry Licorice
 - So, So Gorgeous You Almost Cry Out
 - Intense Licorice Flower 
 - An Assault on the Olfactory Senses

 - Palate - Incredibly Bright
 - Bright Cherry and Fresh Wild Mountain Blueberries
 - The Fruit Is So Precise 
 - It Has A Density that Belies Its Elegance
 - Cherry Flower Aromatics Absolutely Blast the Palate 
 - So Pure and Elegant, It Almost Defies Logic
 - A Barbaresco for the Ages
 - Structure and Balance to Age for Decades 

2019 Ugo Lequio Langhe Nebbiolo 
 - 2019 Is The Next 2016 - This is a Terrific Inexpensive Preview
 - Ugo Has the Touch
 - Incredibly Well Made Langhe Nebbiolo
 - Nose: Medium Weight Cherries
 - Classic Nebbiolo Spice 
 - Palate: Cherries, Spice 
 - Some Lovely Licorice
 - A Wine You Really Will Want in the Cellar  

 - $25.99 - A Fantastic Nebbiolo Value from a Fantastic Producer

Siphonaptera by Augustus De Morgan

"Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,

And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.

And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;

While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on."

A Decidedly Odd Way to Explain a Wine

For those of you who are not etymologists, Siphonaptera is the biological order to which fleas belong. This poem is, of course, not really about fleas. The point is that there is a natural order to things. Great things have things that are lesser and even the lesser things have things that are lesser still.  And of course great things also have greater things and those have things that are greater still. Augustus De Morgan was a 19th century British mathematician and logician. Quite an interesting and quirky fellow.

In any case, the obvious point is that even great wines have wines that are superior to them and so on and so forth.

  -As you can see from the sidebar, Ugo Lequio's 2013 Gallina won a blind tasting of 

The "Hyland 25" Barbaresco Tasting

As most of you know, there is this notion that there are a small number of well known producers in the Langhe that are worth drinking. I've mostly avoided saying that our producers were as good as those because I didn't want to upset the apple cart without evidence. So I decided to set up a tasting of 8 Barbarescos from famous US wine critic Hyland's Top 25 List and added 3 of our producers. I invited some very intelligent, trained wine drinkers/collectors, one of whom is a Master of Wine. I assumed that the Bruno Giacosa (or the Vietti or the Produttori del Barbaresco, Ovello) would crush the competition. Based on the labels, I was fairly surprised to find that Ugo Lequio's Barbaresco Gallina won the day.

Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised. After all, the grapes from Ugo's vineyard were formerly bottled by none other than Bruno Giacosa. I guess great terroir helps.

several Barbarescos that we conducted.

 - 2016 is a much better vintage.

  -And the 2016 Riserva is even better than the regular 2016.

Ugo's wines have always had great density.  The 2016 Riserva combines that density with a rather stunning and unexpected elegance.  It is truly one of the best Barbarescos we've sold.

The Wines

The first wine is the 2016 Ugo Lequio Barbaresco Gallina Riserva for $54.99 a bottle each on a 4-pack. This is actually a much better vintage than the 2013 that won the competition. This is going to be a Barbaresco for the ages.  

The nose is stunning. Simply glorious. Whirling cherry flowers like a field of cherry trees. Soaring spice and cherries.  Sweet, sweet cherry licorice.  My God - so gorgeous!  Cigar, mint, tobacco, menthol leaf all assault your olfactory senses. Terrific aromas A hint of the cherry that is to come on the palate. Beautiful.  As this opens, you get licorice flower - not licorice, licorice flower. This is so elegant, normal licorice aromatics seem almost vulgar by comparison. After 2 hours. Floral, tar, roses, mint, tweed jacket, serious cherry and so complex with so many different aromas and crazy spice. So good. Licorice. Amazing cherry flower with air. Sick.

The palate is a masterful example of Barbaresco. This is brighter than most years.  You get less dark fruit and there is less licorice on the palate. You get more of this blastingly dense, precise and delicious mid season cherry. Also some lovely bright blueberries - early season, just picked and right from the mountains. There is top notch clarity here and the elegance is fully realized. The wine has insane velvety texture and really terrific sweet tannins

But it's the internal aromatics where this wine really kills it. The cherry flowers just blast the palate with

internal aromatics.  There's so intense, they are almost solid.  You also get licorice flower spices.  But all of this is so pure and elegant it almost defies logic. It's like a very elegant version of a very intense wine. Which makes little sense until you taste it. It is long, juicy and exceptionally pure. 

Please do not sit on the second wine.  It is the 2019 Ugo Lequio Langhe Nebbiolo for $25.99 a bottle on a 4 pack purchase.  This is a fantastic bottle of wine for the price. 2019 is the next 2016 so this is a nice preview. Some nights, you want nebbiolo but even if you can afford to, you don't want to drink Barolo or Barbaresco and a well made Langhe nebbiolo will never disappoint.  

The nose has classic Nebbiolo spice with medium weight cherry fruit and lovely licorice that just pops and bubbles up. Deep cherry. Floral. Citrus and Tree bark after some air. A gorgeous nose.

The palate is really amazingly juicy Nebbiolo fruit. Medium weight cherries. Terrific juiciness. A hint of bitterness that balances it all out sort of like a great Oaxacan mole. Terrific tannins will allow this to age well over the medium term (5 years or so). Terrific acids, man is this zingy and fresh and even has some citric zest to it. Tannins build up on the finish. Very serious Langhe Nebbiolo.  This is a great wine to stock up on for pizza Tuesdays or parties.  It's really deliciously fruited but it has enough complexity to please wine geeks.

This has the structure to age for a decade.  It's an amazing, serious take on Barbera and a wine that you will absolutely drink up and regret not having more.

Ugo  Lequio, The Man, the Myth, the Legend

Honestly, even before Ugo crushed this blind tasting, I would have recommended a visit to the estate to anyone.  He is so classically old school Italian charming  that he is straight out of central casting.  When you visit him, there is the espresso (at the local bar, of course) followed by the cigarette.  Then you taste while being regaled with stories about how he got into the wine business.  It's as memorable an experience as you'll have tasting wine.

2016 Ugo Lequio Barbaresco Gallina Riserva - $56.99 ($219.96 4-Pack) 

2019 Ugo Lequio Langhe Nebbiolo - $27.99 ($103.96 4-pack)