Vietti, Barolo DOCG (Piedmont, Italy) 2016

 Vietti’s 2015 release from the Ravera cru was my “Wine of the Year” for 2019, but the 2016 is down just a couple of clicks, and when tasted blind in January of 2020, finished a bit behind this great house’s Lazzarito bottling from the comune of Serralunga.  But with that said, this is still a sensational wine that anyone should feel extremely fortunate to own or taste.  Aromatically, it is phenomenal, showing an amazing array of notes recalling violets, spices, incense and cured meat…and more.  The flavors seem more compressed and the wine a bit thinner than its one year older sibling from 2015, but when I returned to it after another hour after my initial blind tasting, it had filled out a bit, and may very well just have been in a bit of a lull on the day when I tasted it.  (Nebbiolo-based wines definitely go through phases in which they are alternately more expressive or “dumb,” and though the wave form isn’t as dramatic as with Pinot-based wines from Burgundy, this really is “a thing.”)  Based on the bouquet alone, this is a great wine.