2012 Flavio Roddolo Barbera D’Alba Superiore

Flavio Roddolo is the last of the Mohicans: a reclusive farmer in the hills of Monforte d’Alba whose wines have cult status. He works alone — he farms, ferments and bottles everything himself, with no marketing, no consultants and no shortcuts — and ignores trends and often the telephone. Production is tiny, and the wines are hard to find even in the Langhe.

Everything is estate-grown on a few hectares. Fermentations are spontaneous, the wines rest in large neutral wood, and Flavio releases them only when he decides they are ready, years or even decades after the harvest. The Barolo, from a bygone era in the best sense, offers dried cherry, worn leather, forest floor, anise and iron. His Nebbiolo d’Alba behaves like a young Barolo, wild and full of cherry skin and rose petal. He is perhaps most famous for Dolcetto d’Alba, aged for years before release from low yields, proving the grape can have serious structure, and his Barbera d’Alba Superiore shows the same concentration with balsamic lift.

The surprise is Bricco Appiani, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Monforte — herbaceous, dark-fruited and earthy, with no polish and plenty of soul. Roddolo’s wines are savory and uncompromising, and they keep evolving in the glass for hours: a reminder of what tradition in Barolo actually looks like.