2023 Cieck Erbaluca di Caluso, Piemonte

$22.99, SOLID CASE OF 12, $240/$20 per bottle

A two-time veteran of PRIMA’s Wines Of The Year list, this gorgeous, crunch white probably needs no introduction here but, nonetheless, talking about the Erbaluce grape is something of which we’ll never tire. The mountainside vineyards of Caluso, right on the border between Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta in Italy’s far northwestern corner, seem to defy gravity, perilously clinging to terraces built during Roman times. It’s a stunning vista you almost have to see to believe- the snowy Shangri-La of Italy. This is the home to the local Erbaluce grape- a white cultivar that exudes all the alpine freshness you could possibly ask for, but with a pithy, exuberant presence and personality all its own. The Ciecks’ is one of the best we know. This breath of pure alpine air mixed with the essence of lime peel, saline-infused mineral and fresh cut peach, it’s a fabulous partner for all the wonderful cheeses they produce out there in them snow-capped mountains. It’s also great on its own. Really, a look in each and every one of our own wine fridges is all the validation you could need that it’s one of the best deals these poor wine merchants have seen in a while!

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2022 Matteo Correggia Roero Arneis

$24.99, SOLID CASE OF 12, $264/$22 per bottle

We considers ourselves Arneis snobs, if such a thing were actually possible. But we get to taste so many, and there are have gotten to be so many that are so, well, average, out there. It’s wonderful to taste the best, though, and Correggia’s has been one of the benchmarks for the varieties since the late Matteo Correggia decided to concentrate on the grape now thirty years ago. We first tasted this 2022 with Matteo’s son, Giovanni, on a sunny patio overlooking the Alps surrounded by great friends, and it couldn’t have been a better wine at a better time! Light, fresh and crisp, there is still a solid underpinning of serious minerality and oomph lurking underneath. Trying it again recently (under more clinical conditions) I can say that the Correggia Arneis truly belongs on the short list of the best of the bunch. On the lighter, crisper side of the Arneis flavor and texture spectrum, yes, this is the ultimate in flexible, food friendly and really delicious northern Italian white! My wife says we have to get a case. You should too! Serving suggestion (as tested in the backyard of the Rittmasters): make a salad of fresh crisp chopped celery and celery leaves, mix in a handful of fresh tarragon and small bites of a slightly salty-tangy fresh cheese like feta or ricotta salata. Dress with fresh lemon juice, good olive oil and a bit of salt. Easy, fresh and fun! And GREAT with Correggia Arneis…..

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2022 Az. Ag. Acconero Campomoro Barbera di Monferrato

$17.99, SOLID CASE OF 12, $180/$15 per bottle

OK. Our job each Friday is to present you with true value- at whatever price point that is. And this wine, quite honestly, is the kind of value that could make us broke! What I mean is that we would need to sell an awful lot of $15 Barbera to pay our rent here in Dublin. But a deal is a deal, and when one this good comes along, we need to share it! Acconero is one of the most important names in the Monferrato hills in the Asti zone of northern Piemonte. The Acconeros farm some 60 acres in the region around Vignale Monferrato, the heart of the region, and specialize in Barbera. In fact, the fruit for this amazing deal, the family’s ‘basic’ Barbera d’Asti called CampoMoro, gets an inordinate amount of attention at the winery for a wine that routinely sells for around $20. Fermented in steel but with a nice long maceration to extract the maximum amount of flavor, it ages for six months before bottling. Campomoro acts as a sort of business card for this four-generation farming family; it’s the first Acconero wine most people will try and they want it to leave an indelible impression. This does! Good Barbera needs to have great fruit and this truly does- dark and plummy with hints of florals, a whiff of blueberry and a dash of Kirsch in there as well. Light on its feet, it has plenty of Barbera’s hallmark acidity to frame it. Sitting on a middle weight frame, it’s the ultimate go-with-everything red wine that offers up considerably more interest than just about anything else we’ve tasted from anywhere for this price! Really, buy a case of this and you’ll find it open on the table alongside all manner of fare and, of course, all those the pasta dishes this variety loves so much. Very highly recommended. Put another way, it’s the best $180 you’ll spend on red wine today! Drink now or hold for the next few years to prolong your pleasure!

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2023 Ca’ del Baio Langhe Nebbiolo ‘Red Label’

$22.99, Case of 12, $240/$20 per bottle

Unfortunately for us, Ca’ del Baio is no longer the best-kept secret in Barbaresco it once was. The news, thanks to their rave reviews, the annual visits of the PRIMA gang and the profiling of the Grasso sisters in Suzanne Hoffman’s excellent book ‘Labor of Love,’ is definitely out! But, no matter, the Grassos are still some of the nicest people in all of the Langhe and their wines among the region’s most compelling. With four generations of family knowhow and over 30 vintages behind it, Ca’ del Baio is no Johnny-come-lately to the Barbaresco scene, and with holdings in vineyards like Asili and Pora in the Barbaresco zone and a wonderful spot on the backside of Vallegrande in Treiso, the current generations of the Grasso family, Giulio, Luciana and their three savvy daughters, are important landholders and winemakers, no matter how you look at it. The family home and cellar are not too far from the tiny hamlet of Treiso, the smallest and least-visited of the three major Barbaresco villages, and the easiest to miss if you’re driving through the area. The vineyards that fan out from this little town are vertiginous in the extreme and only sparsely covered with the kind of sandy, marly soils that create the most structured, longest lived Nebbiolos in the entire Barbaresco zone. In order to keep quality high on the Barbaresco-labeled wines that pay the bills here, the Grassos declassify a portion of the younger vines to create one of the most lovely Langhe Nebbiolos we have in the store- the so-called Red Label- Ca’ del Baio’s signature Baio, or bay horse, in vivid crimson! There aren’t many wines of this type we know that can pack so much juicy flavor into a bottle for around $20 these days. In fact, with many Langhe Nebbiolos know cracking the $40 or even $50 threshold, a wine of this quality with this much flair seems all the more amazing! Dark and really snappy, the fresh cherries and macerated raspberries just jump out of the glass, as does Nebbiolo’s native floral and spice notes. Though there’s a core of nicely defined fruit there, it’s a wine nicely weighted towards the lighter, more aromatic side of the grape making it perfectly suited for duty as a house red alongside everything from Mac and Cheese to Burgers or Pork Chops off the grill. I particularly love this wine a little cooler than cellar temperature either on its own while I am in the kitchen cooking, or with a platter of smoked meats and cheeses. The Grassos themselves often serve it with Luciana’s tajarin al sugo, and there’s nothing wrong with that either! Really, a case is not enough!

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2019 Antonio Vallana Spanna, Colline Novaresi

$24.99, SOLID CASE OF 12, $264/$22 per bottle

It was my late brother-in-law Mike who first introduced me, nearly forty years ago, to the Vallana family’s iconic Spanna. His bottles, acquired a few at a time from his wine-collector father-in-law in Boston over a period of many years, were all tightly wrapped in plastic and had been around so long the neck labels with the vintage had dried up and fallen off. When we shared them, it almost didn’t matter if we knew or not what vintage we were drinking because no matter how old it was, every bottle we ever tried was simply perfect! And for the past thirty years spent working regularly with Piemontese wines, I’ve been lucky enough on several occasions – both here and in Italy- to try Vallanas dating back to the fifties that drank magnificently! I never really understood, though, why a bottle of simple Nebbiolo (locally called Spanna) bottled without any serious oak treatment or any other bells and whistles for that matter, could age so effortlessly. Then I finally visited the area and saw how achingly slowly the grapes ripened in these high-altitude vineyards and how chilly these cellars were in the winter. They mature at a glacier’s pace because there’s nothing to stop them! Anyway, as we all know, the key isn’t necessarily how long you can keep a wine, it’s how it tastes the moment when you decide to open it. And that’s what makes a Vallana Spanna so special…not only can it age for decades, it’ll taste good on whatever day in whatever year you want to drink it! Tonight even. And it’s one of the best deals you’ll ever find. Made from old vine Nebbiolo with a soupcon of the local Vespolina grape added for a bit of color and heft, these grapes are grown in the unique, mountainous terroir in the alpine foothills of the northernmost part of Piemonte. The Nebbiolo here is not endowed with the weight and muscle one sees further west in Barolo and Barbaresco,

but it does have every bit the spice and nuance, and a singular Pinot Noir-like elegance that makes Spanna a stellar food-pairing wine. It can ably handle lighter, more delicate fare like Vitello Tonnato and frito misto as well as classic Nebbiolo-friendly dishes making it not only a delicious wine to open any time, but a useful one too! And, really, you can’t beat the price! Discover the Nebbiolo you’ve never known at a price that will make you come back for more!