2016 Pasquale Pelissero Cascina Cosa Barbaresco Piedmont Italy 750 ml

Smartly priced Barbaresco from 2016—a vintage that combined lift, depth, and ageability like we’ve never seen before—is one of the wisest additions you can make to your cellar. At $29 per bottle, the delicately perfumed 2016 Cascina Crosa maxes out both quality and savings in a Langhe season to remember

James Suckling named it one of the top ten best Nebbiolo values from the 2015 and 2016 vintages, hailing its “focus and firmness” while awarding 93 points. The nose unfolds with dark tones of ripe, dried cherry, lightly smoked cranberry, and spiced plum, while an hour of decanting will bring the fine, supple tannin structure into crystal-clear focus. Displaying a youthful energy and gorgeous secondary tones emerging on the long, detailed finish, this is a wine we fall in love with again every time we open a bottle.

For Italian specialists in the wine trade, one of the headline events of the year is the Nebbiolo Prima—a five-day marathon tasting of hundreds of wines held in Alba that can leave even the stoutest of palates exhausted. But as a broad window into the character of a given vintage of Barolo and Barbaresco, it has no equal.

It was while attending the Prima that we discovered the exquisitely balanced 2016 Cascina Crosa bottling. While we continued to taste dozens of wines during the remainder of our trip, henceforth we only had eyes for this release. We pushed in all our chips to acquire as much as possible at the most competitive price, shaving off dollar after dollar in negotiations.

Cascina Crosa is the name of the farm that the Pelissero family acquired nearly a century ago. It’s a historic property, formerly owned by nobility, that boasts some of the most renowned terroir in Neive. The Pelissero’s hillside plots of calcareous soil produce Nebbiolo that shows commanding restraint, and an elegant, almost floral delicacy. All the grapes are estate-grown and this cuvée, bearing the name of the estate, is the flagship offering.

The estate’s late patriarch, “Papa” Pasquale, was one of the first Neive producers to bottle and sell his own wine, releasing his first vintage in 1971. That independent tradition is carried on today by his daughter, Ornella, and her son, Simone, whose only innovation has been to introduce a temperature-controlled fermentation tank.

Their traditional, artisanal approach paid big dividends in 2016, an extraordinary growing season that produced a crop of unprecedented quality, with cool temperatures and long hangtimes making maturity effortless.

It should all add up to a lot more than $29—and from many other retailers, it will. But at Wine Access, today marks a golden opportunity to buy up top Nebbiolo for far less than the standard cost of entry.