We had the 2016 Barbaresco from this producer in Kompas Club a year ago. 2016 was a classic vintage in Barbaresco and early reports on 2019 are that it is another. (2019 Barbarescos are just now able to be released to the market after their required two years of aging, but most producers surpass that standard.) The grapes for this Langhe Nebbiolo all come from the Barbaresco estate but come from the youngest vines with slightly shorter maceration to make the wine more precocious. So while they could legally be labeled as Barbaresco, the family holds higher standards for their Barbaresco and doesn’t try to turn relatively simple, young grapes into a complex wine. Brothers Marco and Ivan Rocca are fifth generation winemakers and winegrowers and their father Pietro was the first to produce his own wines instead of selling to prestigious winemakers, such as Angelo Gaja. The grapes are grown organically and the winemaking is very traditional with native yeast fermentation, long maceration on the skins, even steccatura, which involves inserting a lattice of wood into the fermenters to hold the skins under the surface of the wine instead of floating on the top. There is a modern tweek, however, in that while they age their wines in large oak casks, called botti, they use Austrian instead of the traditional Slavonian oak. They never succumbed to the controversial practice of using new French barriques, a practice that garnered big scores in the 90s and 2000s, but completely changed the character of the wines. Now, thankfully, slathering the delicate aromas of Nebbiolo in chocolate vanilla cream is largely a thing of the past. Like the Barbaresco, this Langhe Nebbiolo is absurdly good for the price and would be a wonderful accompaniment to tomato sauced pasta and gourmet pizza.