Cooperatives are not an unusual phenomenon in Europe.  Almost every growing region on the continent has at least one place where growers with no ability to make their own wine can send their grapes and get a decent return on their hard work.  Most aren’t really known for quality.  But one, in particular, is, and that’s the famous Produttori del Barbaresco.  Growing out of the original Cantina Sociale founded by nine local growers near the town of Barbaresco in 1894, the Produttori crushed its first grapes in 1958. The concept from the very beginning was simple: do only one thing, and do it very, very well.  Located just up from the town’s (now deconsecrated) church, the facility handles only one type of grape and one type of grape only: Nebbiolo.  And, from that grape (grown now by 51 individual member-farmers) the facility produces only two wines and, when the harvest is particularly good, a third level of Riserva, all from the nine original vineyards.  If you visit Barbaresco in the fall, you’ll see a conga line of tractors pulling all manner of trailers stacked with fragrant Nebbiolo lined up at the cellar door where, under the watchful eye of longtime director Aldo Vacca, each batch of grapes is graded, kept separate and ticketed for a fermentation zone in the cantina where, after further evaluation a year or so after it has become wine, it will wind up as either the cantina’s extra-special Barbaresco or the winery’s equally distinctive, top-quality Langhe Nebbiolo.  It’s this latter wine, which by rights (and a little more time in cask) could itself be called Barbaresco, that shows just special are the wines produced here.  Langhe Nebbiolo can be difficult for a consumer to grasp as, depending on the producer, they can be light, juicy and easy-drinking while others can be dead serious wines- Barolos or Barbarescos in a minor key.  Produttori’s falls somewhere in the latter camp but with a snappy, aromatic and textural profile that makes it irresistible even now.  A lovely color of saturated cherry red, Nebbiolo’s spicy, plummy and earth-driven aromatics are on vivid display in every glass.  Medium-weight but with enough cherry confit-like gras to cover its bones, it’s very much a young Barbaresco without a young Barbaresco’s searing acidity and tannin.  This is one of the most food-flexible reds in my arsenal at home because it provides my fix for Nebbiolo without having to worry too much about cooking for it.  We had a bottle of this 2020 open on the table for a week’s worth of dinners and- other than the light fish dish we cooked one evening- it went with everything and, not only that, it just got better and better in the bottle as the week went on!  Not to take anything away from all those great wines labeled Barbaresco out there, this is damned close and half the price!  Put another way, since I own a wine store, I rarely ever have to buy a case of anything, but with this wine, I will make an exception.  Drink now or keep at least another six or eight years.  Very highly recommended.