This just in. We don’t always agree with the Wine Spectator but they just named this wine their #9 Wine of the Year for 2024 so they’re not all bad…..

2020 Az. Ag. G.D. Vajra Barolo ‘Albe’ DOCG

Still $44.99 with shipping included on 6 bottles or more

The ‘value’ Barolo segment, once filled with a plethora of good choices under $50, has become smaller by the year as mainstays like Vietti’s Barolo Castiglione and the Odderos’ Barolo Classico have drifted northward in price and those with lesser pedigrees simply have not kept up their end of the bargain. All is not lost, though, as several blue chip values do remain for those of us who love top-flight Barolo but don’t want to pay $100 for the pleasure. Last year we mourned the passing of Enrico Scavino, the quality pioneer whose blended Barolo remains, at still under $50, one of the best you can find for the money- their 2020 is in stock as well- but, over the past few vintages, we’ve also been very impressed with the Vaira family’s most excellent blended cuvee, a wine that displays a distinctly westside Barolo personality as opposed to, say, those of the Odderos, Scavinos and Viettis which are more pan-appellation in their approach. While most of the Vairas’ treasured fruit from their holdings in Bricco delle Viole, in the Vergne zone high above Barolo castle, are saved for their vaunted single-vineyard bottling, they also farm (organically, of course) small holdings in Fossati (a steep slope running along the border between La Morra and Barolo), La Volta (just under Viole) and Coste de Vergne (located over the shoulder of La Morra hill facing Cherasco). These holdings are not bottled separately, but rather astutely blended together to make a really lovely wine that shows the many attributes of that side of the hill, a particularly fine thing in the beautifully rendered 2020 vintage where fruit, depth and balance is front and center. Frankly, we’ve not tasted a better Barolo for the money from this harvest. It has lovely presence right as you pop the bottle as Nebbiolo’s cinnamon-spice and red rose/jasmine aromatics are immediately apparent along with a deep well of vibrant red cherry and wild berry fruit. We were impressed with the wine’s structure which boasts a nice bit of the ‘scorched earth’ and wild anise character we associate more with the Vairas’ more expensive Bricco delle Viole and other high-ticket wines. This will not only be an extraordinary drink in its youth (like the bottle I plan on drinking this weekend) but also with added cellaring. A textbook wine to open at ten years past the harvest, there’s a lot of class here, especially for the money. Affordable enough, we think, for a half case, at least!