By now, just about every longtime PRIMA customer has heard of Tiziana Settimo.  She’s is a longstanding member of Piemonte’s ever-expanding contingent of smart, talented women winemakers, but not one you’ll probably be hearing a lot about outside of good ol’ Walnut Creek.  She’s not someone you’ll meet making the rounds of trade shows in New York, Chicago, LA or San Francisco to promote her wines, and she simply doesn’t have the time or inclination to submit them to critics, magazines or competitions.  She prefers, instead, to concentrate on farming her family’s small parcel of the famous Rocche dell’Annunziata cru in La Morra and fashioning her grapes into a couple of hundred cases of really tremendous Nebbiolo and Barolo.  Tiziana learned her winemaking skills from her father who had, in turn, learned it from his, and she considers herself a staunch traditionalist. Even though the cantina has undergone a recent renovation (and the addition of son Davide to the mix), you still won’t find any new wood or small barrels in residence amongst the concrete fermenters and large Slovonian oak botti.  From the younger (25-year old) vines on the southeastern-facing slopes of Rocche and the adjoining piece of the Annunziata MGA comes her particularly savory and delightfully Old School Langhe Nebbiolo.  The Nebbiolo here is handled identically to the grapes that eventually become Tiziana’s much-coveted Barolo, Rocche Barolo and Rocche Riserva Barolo except they are macerated for a shorter period of time and aged in the cellar’s old concrete tanks instead of wood for 36 months before bottling.  And while others are currently selling us their 2022 or even 2023 Langhe Nebbs, Tiziana has just sent us another go-round of her excellent 2021, a great, great vintage in the region and a smokin’ good drinker right now!  I am a huge fan of Tiziana’s Nebbiolo and, thankfully, speak for it every vintage which, when a vintage like 2021 comes along, is a very good thing!  America gets fewer than 300 bottles, we’ve taken most of them.  Nebbiolo fans will instantly identify this as a classic rendition of the ‘baby Barolo’ style, here are Nebbiolo’s classic wild berry, balsamic, licorice, cocoa powder and scorched earth flavors caught in vivid relief in a mid-weight, thoroughly charming format that invites earthy pasta dishes and braised meats to the party. An absolutely delicious bottle of Nebb and very fairly priced too.  Lovely!  Get a case while you can.