Pira, Luigi di Gianpaolo Pira, Barolo DOCG (Piedmont, Italy) 2015

 I can’t lay claim to having tasted every wine made at this estate during the past decade, but I’ve tasted most of them, and this is the best I’ve tasted since the marvelous 2006 “Marenca” (which was among the very best wines made in a great but still un-ready and widely misunderstood vintage).  How am I so sure this 2015 Margheria is a great wine?  Because I tasted it blind immediately following Vietti’s superb 2015 Lazzarito, and this was significantly more impressive…which is really saying something.  It shows truly prodigious size and depth of flavor, yet remains harmonious and even graceful due to the fact that no particular aroma, flavor or structural component pushes out ahead of the others.  The fruit is ripe and wonderfully appealing without seeming obvious; the wood frames and supports the wine without obscuring its fruit, and the tannins lend structure and guts without drying out the finish.  Very competitive in the running for “wine of the vintage,” this doesn’t quite show the effortless, seamless quality of Vietti’s Ravera at this point, but it is a much less expensive wine that is very close in overall quality.  An incredible performance in this vintage.