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Boris
Cantina Produttori Nebbiolo di Carema
Carema Selezione
2015
4.5
Region
Italy › Piedmont › Carema DOC
Type
red · still
Grapes
Nebbiolo
Alcohol
13.5%
Volume
750 mL
Available at
Tasting Notes(2)
4.5
A whisper of vanilla and caramel from the French barrique giving an old-school, slightly grand-cru frame to a deeply traditional Carema nose - asphalt, tar, gudron, walnut and walnut shell, sitting alongside wild strawberry, dried berries, dried red flowers, black tea, and that fallen-leaves register only cold-climate Nebbiolo gets to. Gorgeous fine-grained acidity on the palate, structured and very chalky, the kind of multilayered build that demands attention rather than just rewarding it. Hard to guess blind - the barrel-aged spine pulls the Selezione further toward Langhe gravitas than the lighter Etichetta Nera Classico, and I missed it. Really, really lovely all the same.
About
The Selezione is a small-production cuvée the Carema cooperative introduced for its 60th vintage, sitting alongside the Etichetta Nera Classico and Etichetta Bianca Riserva rather than replacing either. Grapes are picked from the members' parcels considered to give the most intense wines, then aged two years in large oak botti followed by about a year in neutral French oak barriques before bottling. Carema itself sits at the cooler, higher edge of Nebbiolo's range - terraced up to about 600 metres on glacial soils, trained on the stone-pillared pergolas locals call 'topion' - and the warm 2015 vintage helped the grapes reach full ripeness without losing the appellation's altitude-driven nerve. Expect a translucent, floral, pomegranate-toned Nebbiolo with quiet tannins and a long, mineral finish, the barrel-aged spine giving this tier a touch more weight than the Etichetta Nera.
