Piccolo Barolo - Diego Rivetti
(Sign up to receive Open Tuesday offers like this one by text or by email.)
Spring 2023 Offer #10: Diego Rivetti
Diego Rivetti
Wine friends,
"È un piccolo Barolo!” (It’s a little Barolo) That’s what Barbaresco maestro Manuel Marinacci said about Diego Rivetti’s 2021 Langhe Nebbiolo when we tasted it together in October. Indeed, Diego’s Nebbiolo is a better wine than most of the Barolos I’ve tasted in recent months – and it comes in at about half the price!
Why is this Nebbiolo a “piccolo Barolo?” Two reasons: 1) Diego Rivetti is a superb winemaker; 2) location, location, location. The vineyard from which Diego sources these Nebbiolo grapes sits within the Barolo production area, adjacent to some of Barolo’s most famous sites. Take a look at this photo:
Today’s Nebbiolo comes from the vineyard shaded yellow. In the future, Diego intends to use part of the yellow vineyard to produce his second Barolo. His first, set for release in 2024, will be a 2020 Barolo sourced from the vineyard shaded red.
Diego Rivetti - 2021 Langhe Nebbiolo ($22.95)
Diego Rivetti’s 2021 Nebbiolo offers crisp cherry fruit and a firm core, with plenty of grip and length. It’s a terrific value for Langhe Nebbiolo at this price point. As the wine opens up, it reveals notes of anise, orange peel, and clay. While not quite as muscular as most Borolos, this young Nebbiolo would benefit from 30 minutes of air before drinking.
For the record, Diego loves all his wines (and children) equally. That said, when I tasted today’s two wines with him, I had the impression that his Arneis may be closest to his heart. I think I understand why. There’s a lot of Nebbiolo on the market, although good Nebbiolo is usually more pricey. Roero Arneis is a different story. There's a lot of tired, flabby Arneis on the market – Diego’s Arneis is just the opposite.
Diego Rivetti - 2021 Roero Arneis Criculin ($19.95)
Diego Rivetti’s 2021 Roero Arneis is a medium-bodied, rich white wine with verve and persistence. The Arneis fruit aromas jump out of the glass to fill your senses, with piercing pear fruit and subtle nutmeg and almond notes in evidence.
To order, just click one of the blue links and follow the prompts.
As some of you may have noticed, the vineyard shaded red in the photo above sits adjacent to one of the greatest cru vineyards in all of Italy, Vigna Rionda. Next year, we hope to have access to Diego Rivetti’s debut Barolo from this vineyard.
Here’s Azienda Agricola Diego Rivetti on the map of Northwestern Italy. Diego makes only about seven thousand bottles of wine a year. In 2021, about three thousand bottles were Arneis and 2.5 thousand were Langhe Nebbiolo.
And here are our social media posts for this offer: Instagram | Facebook
Food pairing: This Roero Arneis is ideal with goat cheese, white fish, or chicken. Staying local, risotto al finocchio (fennel risotto) would be a nice vegetarian option. Another good Piemontese dish would be vitello tonnato (veal served cold in a creamy tuna sauce). This Rivetti Nebbiolo pairs especially well with game meat, less saucy pork dishes, and pasta with truffles.
Diego Rivetti - 2021 Langhe Nebbiolo ($22.95)
14% ABV
Diego Rivetti - 2021 Roero Arneis Criculin ($19.95)
14% ABV
Happy Tuesday,
Chris
If you have any questions or feedback, please email us: [email protected].
How it works:
After clicking one of the links above, you’ll be able to request 1-12 bottles. Actually, that’s all you have to do!
About a week later, when we close the offer, you’ll get an email confirming how many bottles we allocated to your account. We will charge you when the wines are allocated.
We’ll do our best to allocate all the bottles you request. But when there are more requests than bottles available, we’ll allocate one bottle to all requesting members before allocating a second bottle to anyone. We want as many members as possible to try these wines.
This is the tenth offer of our spring 2023 season.
Through February and March, we are sending offers on Thursday and Sunday, with a recap of the past week’s offers on Tuesday.
We ship in increments of 12. With 18 offers this season, there should be plenty of chances to get to 12, 24, or 36. If you don’t have an increment of 12 at the end of the fall season offers, we can hold your wines until the next offer season – fall 2023.
Wines offered in the spring will ship in April for $5 per bottle (if you have an increment of 12.) This is about the same as the price to ship coast-to-coast within the U.S. – but our wines come directly from Italy.
Once your payment method is on file, you can make future requests with just a few clicks from the offer email. If you don’t have a card on file, you can add one during your first order. Your personal financial information is protected by Stripe.
Chris MacLean
Rob Genova
Open Tuesday Wines S.r.l.s.
Via Augusto Anfossi 19, 20135 Milano - Italy