Perfumed nose of lavender, plums and currants. Some tobacco. It’s full-bodied, creamy and fruity, with slightly rough, grainy tannins, but remains pure and approachable. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.

The 2022 Timorasso Boscogrosso is a new wine from Vietti. It emerges from a single parcel in Monleale. Aromatic and pliant, with terrific textural depth, the 2022 has a lot to offer. A brief period on the skins accents the natural richness of the variety. This is an especially refined Timorasso.

Wild and exotic, the 2021 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Docheio impresses with a vividly fresh blend of wilted violets and dusty rose, incense, lavender pastille and citrus-tinged blackberries. This is cool-toned and racy in style, with soft and enveloping textures and a sensation of liquid stone that paves the way for ripe red and blue fruits. Saline minerality adds a tactile edginess as the 2021 saturates the palate with licorice and spice, tapering off juicy in feel and lightly tannic. Wow, what a wine. The Docheio is a new wine from La Valentina; it's refined entirely in amphora with half of the bunches left intact and the other half destemmed.

Built to age, with concentrated flavors and lots of lip-smacking tannins, with medium weight and good acidity. It should be decanted if opened over the next few years or, if you like to see how a wine develops short term, take some time enjoying a glass or two to taste it as it develops in real time.

This is a serious beauty that reminds us of the brilliant work underway at this leading estate. Yes, ownership has changed over recent years, but this wine remains "Rocche-solid." From an epic vintage, the Vietti 2021 Barolo Rocche di Castiglione is a classic with those elegant mineral notes of glacial till and flake salt followed by carefully ripened fruit, blackcurrant and a finely tuned floral note of fragrant tea leaf that hits the high notes. The effect is ethereal but also precise. Fruit comes from two parcels, one planted in 1958 and the other in 1969, and the blend is half of each fermented together. Fruit was picked on October 1st, and the wine saw 24 days on the skins. The first year this wine was produced is 1961. The Rocche di Castiglione site has 35% sand with marl soils that continue to evolve, kicking out more new sand. Only 3,728 bottles exist, and that's the bad news.

Starts with an open feel, displaying cherry, peach, iron, tar and tobacco flavors before firming up. This lively red builds to the long aftertaste of red licorice, tobacco and earth. Best from 2027 through 2045.

Fruit for this wine comes from a three-hectare parcel in Serralunga d'Alba near the village, with south and southwestern exposures in a small amphitheater. The soils in this area are older and thus more evolved, but they always create wines of strong character. The Vietti 2021 Barolo Lazzarito is easy to identify thanks to its salty mineral finish, which is almost metallic in taste, and its bright hints of sweet rosemary and wild herb. These delicate high notes form pretty framing to a dark core of elegant fruit. The estate counts five vineyards in Serralunga d'Alba, but Lazzarito is the only MGA bottling. Production is a bit larger here, with 10,363 bottles made this vintage.

A very pretty, perfumed, young Etna rosso with plenty of fresh flowers, focus and finesse. Medium-bodied, it has fine tannins and a long, bright finish. Best ever? Drink now or hold.