It has been many years since we’ve had any of the Roagna family’s wines to sell.  Back when I first started at PRIMA, in 1994, we regularly received a smattering of Luca Roagna’s delicious and age-worthy Barolos and Barbarescos, as well as a few bottles of their totally unique Super Piemontese Opera Prima, a wine we related to here for obvious reasons.  But Roagna disappeared from the California market about 20 years ago as a new wave of more modern, sexier and well-reviewed wines grabbed their share of the market.  But the rest of Europe never lost their taste for Roagna and it gradually earned a place as one of the cultiest of Italian cult wines…..fiercely individual Langhe wines you only hear about but never actually see.  Collectors throughout Europe voraciously gobbled them up while we here in America went wanting.  And while I would come across them occasionally while travelling in Italy and order one from a wine list when I saw it, Luca Roagna steadfastly said he was waiting for just the right situation before he’d create an allocation for us again.  Well, all these years later, it’s finally happened!  At long last, Roagna is back in California!  The Roagnas are, as I say, benchmarks for traditional Piemontese winemaking- made exclusively from old vines on great sites, naturally farmed and fermented, and very much aged and finished the old-fashioned way.   They are, as a group, one of the most exciting allocations we’ve received all year, and I’d love to get a few bottles onto your tables and into your cellars as well.  Our allocations are small, and balanced orders across the board are appreciated.  Do not miss the amazing Solea Bianco, one of the coolest whites I’ve ever tried from the Langhe, and the Langhe Rosso, a blend of Nebbiolo from Paje in Barbaresco and Pira in Barolo, hits all the high notes too. Fewer than 10,000 bottles are made of this cuvee from 25-50 year old vines in Paje, right in the heart of the Barbaresco growing zone. This is a stunner that will drink well for many, many years.