Conterno Nervi Vigna Valferana Gattinara 2016

The 2016 Gattinara Vigna Valferana is every bit as impressive from bottle as it was from cask. Rich and resonant, the 2016 is so supremely beautiful as it opens up in the glass. It is a wine of real breadth and textural expansiveness. Rose petal, mint, sweet dried cherry, tar, anise and orange peel are some of the nuances that emerge, but the Valferana is a wine to admire for its total sense of balance. In a word: Lights out. Make that two words. Roberto Conterno continues to take Nervi to new heights. I tasted all of these wines from cask during a visit to the winery in 2018, so I can’t say I am surprised by the level of quality. The 2016 single-vineyard Gattinaras are out of this world. Conterno has taken his maniacal attention to detail and the best practices he has developed at his Giacomo Conterno estate in Serralunga and applied them at Nervi. The results speak for themselves. Drinking window: 2024-2056. Score – 96. (Antonio Galloni, vinous.com, Sept. 2020)