Ioppa Nebbiolo Colline Novaresi DOC 2020

The 2018 vintage was written up in The New York Times.

20 Reds Under $20: Where the Values Live, for Now - The New York Times

Good nebbiolo doesn’t just come from the Langhe. All over the northern Piedmont, higher altitude nebbiolo wines, often easier to consume when young than those from the Langhe, come from areas like Ghemme, Gattinara and Colline Novaresi, just to name a few. This one — from Ioppa, a small, family operation based in Ghemme — is just plain delicious, emphasizing the easy-drinking, dark-fruited side of nebbiolo. - The New York Times

The Ioppas have been owning vineyards and making wine since 1852. And they currently own 27 hectares of vines, plus an additional 10 hectares of hazelnuts.

Nebbiolo dominates in the area, and as a result of the particular soil characteristics and the cool climate, the Nebbiolos from here are medium-weight, juicy, acidic, tannic, austere and generally extremely minerally. Aromas are somewhat cooler than the southern areas of Barolo and Barbaresco, but longevity is frequently greater, and the wines, when well made, often develop spectacular tertiary aromas with time in bottle, virtually wiping out primary fruit, and supplanting it with a sometimes staggering range of mineral, soil aromas. The Nebbiolo wines from these parts, then, are hardly for the wine novice, and very much something for discerning palates that have developed beyond the gobs of fruit?stereotype and into the rarefied strata of terroir and typicity that require little or no obvious fruit character.