2018 Paitin Starda Langhe Nebbiolo 750 ml

The wild strawberry and rose petal-kissed Paitin Starda is not like other under-$35 Nebbiolos. 

Its provenance is unmatched, artfully crafted at the 224-year-old estate that released its first trailblazing Nebbiolo in 1893. Of family-owned Paitin, Vinous’ Antonio Galloni wrote, “Paitin is one of the very few estates in Piedmont where every wine - from top to bottom - is worth your consideration. Consistency across the entire range is one of the criteria that separates the very best estates from the merely excellent. Paitin’s entry-level offerings deliver considerable quality for the money.” 

Finely delineated lines of fresh fruit seamlessly woven with mint, star anise, cedar, and tar make the 92-point Starda impossible to overlook in any lineup and on any dinner table. As Galloni added, “It is the wine’s balance that stands out the most.” The high praise is of course merited, but can you blame us for lamenting the scarcity all their fame has wrought? 

It wasn’t always fresh fruits and rose petals for Paitin and the Pasquero-Elia family. Though they’ve been ahead of the Nebbiolo curve for over 100 years, the world didn’t always know it. 

We met owner Giovanni Pasquero-Elia decades ago, when he was a young winemaker trying to make sense of an American wine market that was simply nonsensical. At the time, few restaurateurs knew much of the Langhe. Those who did believed Piedmont’s greatest wines to be brickish in color, prematurely oxidative, dried-out, and harsh. 

On one sales trip to the States, Giovanni could only shake his head as one restaurateur after another tasted his Nebbiolos, openly questioning why the wines were so fresh. His wines were an argument for rich and refined Nebbiolo that stands as northern Italy’s answer to Chambolle-Musigny, but the old-school Italian restaurateurs only rolled their eyes. Giovanni returned to Neive perplexed, wondering if Paitin would ever get the international credit it deserved.

Fortunately, the world came to its senses. In the late ‘90s, the critics caught on to the magic happening at Paitin, and a barrage of top scores ensued. An early review from Wine Advocate urged, “Readers will find much to admire in these gorgeous wines from Paitin, a small grower based in Neive.” It wasn’t much later that Vinous published the resounding stamp of approval quoted above. 

Now the issue is getting your hands on it.

Grown from 40-year-old vines on the Serraboella hill in Neive, the 2018 Starda gets an added touch of supple texture from the hill’s sandy soils, while retaining the noble structure of Nebbiolo’s long-grained tannins. In the cellar, fermentation in stainless steel and aging in large Slavonian oak casks preserve the incredible fruit purity, richness, and nuanced vineyard character painstakingly achieved through biodynamic farming. 

The result is a perfect fall and winter wine. Weighty enough to compliment hearty fare but easily refreshing and still light on its feet. The complexities that course through its ruby-hued veins are delicious, rather than heady, and at this price, there’s never a wrong time to pop a cork.