E. Pira – Chiara Boschis, Barolo DOCG (Piedmont, Italy) 2015

 This is clearly the best of all the wines I’ve tasted from Monforte in this vintage, and though it comes off as quite overt and modern in profile, I find it difficult to believe that anyone who loves Barolo wouldn’t adore it regardless of their particular stylistic preferences.  I tasted it several times before and after several other wines, and was struck by different aspects in these multiple encounters, but every aspect was appealing and every encounter was immensely pleasurable.  For example, my initial note emphasized its extremely expressive and alluring fruit aromas, with oak seeming very restrained in relative terms, though I later found a lot of vanilla scents that didn’t jibe with my first sniffs, but still seemed lovely in relation to the wine’s other aromatic components.  Dark and dense in appearance, with so much open, seductive appeal that it provides a completely enveloping experience, this is a marvelous fleshpot of a wine.  Yikes!