Matteo Correggia, Roero DOCG (Piedmont, Italy) 2016

 I hate to throw cold water on this prospect from the outset, but only 767 cases of this were made, so you might not want to get overheated about the prospect of finding this (retailers in Texas and Colorado have the wine in this vintage).  Still, at an absolute minimum, this wine shows how interesting Nebbiolo from Roero can be.  It displays a “dusty” quality both aromatically and in terms of super-fine tannin feel that I associate with nothing but Sangiovese from the heart of the Chianti Classico district, but here it is, quite unmistakably (and un-mistakenly, I might add, as I had just washed and dried the high-end glass an hour before, so no cabinet funk explanation for this).  These are different phenomena that make sense under the same term, as Tuscans will tell you – but let’s get back to Piedmont.  With medium-plus palate weight and a lovely layer of fruit sweetness running through the persistent finish, this is a charmer but also a serious wine that has years of positive development ahead of it.  There’s rather low acidity from a great vintage that generally provided a lot of it, but there’s nothing remotely ponderous or over-ripe about this, and it will surely benefit from at least another five years of aging.