Barbaresco Pio Cesare 2018: A Gorgeous Expression of Piedmontese Nebbiolo
Barbaresco Pio Cesare 2018 is a textbook wine; it has everything that is required of a purebred Nebbiolo. Structure, rock, and earth that emerge on the nose, delicate and straight fruit, finesse, tannic robustness, and good personality.
It only needs 10 years of rest in the cellar, and then it will be an excellent wine. Drunk now, it is a neutered wine and still a little mute, with the hard parts pushing too hard but rightly so.
If it were the other way around, it would be a wine that has already arrived without a future, when instead this fieriness is a symptom of great longevity.
Is it worth buying at the price of 50–54 euros?
Surely. The 2018 vintage was perfect, but not great. Long and rainy winter; mild spring with good rainfall. The summer was not too hot, apart from the final part of July, but the ripening was slow and constant and did not fry the bunches, in which the acidity remained at a good level.
Organoleptic characteristics
And this constancy is also apparent in the wine, which moves calmly and elegantly with a solemn gait and good austerity. The color is ruby and transparent.
The bouquet is dark and penetrating and plays on the duality of fleshy fruit and undergrowth.
It is full of earthy, tar, and tea scents, grilled watermelon, dried meat, blue flowers, and a licorice and rhubarb finish.
Gorgeous and prim, measured, and flawless. The wood is hardly annoying, but over the years it will be seamlessly integrated into the aromatic picture without any problems.
On the palate, it is very tannic, warm, and enveloping, but punctuated by slightly savory peaks. It has structure and very vigorous tannins, which innervate the whole wine, making it beautifully earthy with clear cinchona flavors.
At the moment it is in a transitory phase; all the extract and this dark and pulsating pulp do not move in unison, but the finesse of the stroke is there. Therefore, it is only a matter of time.
Evolution is just a glimmer; the tertiary sector is barely mentioned.
Give it 10–15 years and it will be an excellent Barbaresco. Potentially, it can easily live for 30 years with all this thickness.
Price
50-54 euros.
Pairings
Pizza margherita, veal with tuna sauce, chicken curry, ribs with barbecue sauce, baked lasagna, pulled pork, hamburger, fillet Wellington, and paella.
