Piedmont was, even before the days of Italian unification and King Victor Emmanuel II, long associated with royalty. In the world of Italian wine, the most regal of grapes is the ancient and revered Nebbiolo, which finds its two greatest expressions on the rolling slopes of this region of North Western Italy in the glorious wines of Barolo and Barbaresco. Barbaresco is one of Italy’s top wines, yet some wine drinkers favoured Barolo, its larger and more renowned neighbour.

Barbaresco has in recent years stepped up its game, in part due to a new generation of winemakers who are producing ever higher quality wines and in part due to the region’s unique microclimate which encourages freshness and balance in its Nebbiolo grapes, well demonstrated by the 2011 vintage. A hot growing season was balanced by cool nights and an early harvest of the generally late-ripening Nebbiolo, resulting in what James Suckling (Wine Spectator) described as “a beautiful vintage for Barbaresco”. Today, Barbaresco is truly first among equals.

We are delighted once again to welcome Michael Palij MW to present to us a truly exciting selection of some of Italy’s finest wines (appropriately, on Italy’s national holiday: Il Giorno della Liberazione (Liberation Day)). Michael is well-known to members as an expert guide to Italian wines and producers. Concentrating on the comune of Barbaresco itself, we will not neglect the two other comuni fully within the Barbaresco DOCG: Treiso (known for elegant and perfumed wines) and Neive (where the statesman Count Cavour produced robust Nebbiolo wines for the new nation he helped to forge).

Our enticing selection of wines outlined below includes almost exclusively ‘cru’ wines from geographically defined sites and offers examples of both traditional and more modern styles from several producers described as “outstanding” by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson MW:

• Produttori del Barbaresco, Barbaresco

• Nada Fiorenzo, Rombone (Treiso)

• Cascina Luisin, Asili

• Sottimano, Pajorè (Treiso)

• Cascina Luisin, Rabajà

• Marchesi di Grésy, Martinenga

• Cigliuti, Serraboella (Neive)

• Roagna, Pajè