Trediberri Barolo del Comune di La Morra 2022

In 2007, a banker and two Obertos bought five hectares in Berri, a hamlet tucked into the extreme western edge of La Morra. Nicola Oberto would run the cellar and vineyards. His father Federico, who'd spent decades as cellar master at Renato Ratti, brought in his family's holdings. Vladimiro Rambaldi, the banker, brought the money and the nerve. They called the project Trediberri — three from Berri — and didn't release their first commercial vintage until 2011. It's still a young estate by Piedmont standards, which in Barolo means it's barely out of diapers.

One of the parcels Federico's family contributed was a sliver of Rocche dell'Annunziata, sitting between Bartolo Mascarello's vines on one side and Giacomo Voerzio's on the other. Voerzio can afford hail netting over his section. Trediberri can't. That sums up the estate's place in the Barolo pecking order: serious fruit, serious neighbors and nowhere near their budget.

Which makes the decision behind the 2022 vintage all the more interesting. It was a hot, dry, low-yield year, and rather than produce two underwhelming single-vineyard Barolos, Trediberri combined them: roughly 82% Berri and 18% Rocche dell'Annunziata — essentially all of that vintage's Rocche fruit — into one wine, labeled simply Barolo del Comune di La Morra. No separate bottlings, no pretending the vintage was something it wasn't. Just one honest wine made from everything they had.

It turned out to be one of the best things this estate has ever put in a bottle. JebDunnuck.com gave it 96 points. Kerin O'Keefe and James Suckling both awarded it 94, Wine Enthusiast named it an Editor's Choice at 94, and Decanter and Wine Advocate both scored it 93. For a wine conceived without two separate trophies in mind, it's collecting plenty of accolades.

The wine undergoes extended skin maceration in concrete before aging in large, old Slavonian oak casks rather than new barriques, allowing the fruit to shine without the influence of new oak. In the glass, there's a chorus of red fruit — raspberry, redcurrant, Morello and dried cherry — lifted by violets and rose petals, with tobacco, sun-warmed hay and a touch of leather underneath. Nutmeg and star anise carry through the finish. The tannins are fine and velvety but still firm, supported by acidity that keeps the wine lively rather than plush. It's drinking beautifully now, with enough structure to reward a few more years in your cellar if you can resist it that long.

You may not know Trediberri the way you know Conterno or Giacosa. But the fruit in this bottle grew alongside some of Barolo's most famous vines, farmed by people who'd rather make one excellent wine than two impressive-sounding ones. That's a rarer decision in this business than it should be.

— Ben