From Antoniotti’s tiny 5ha Bramaterra property, with its porphory and limestone soil, comes a wine full of life and energy. Its robust, forceful style is bursting with bright black cherry and dark brambly fruit. It emphasises the bold, firmly structured side of Nebbiolo. Less of the ethereal perfume and more of the gutsy, pleasurable food wine here. Mouthwatering acidity plus grippy, silty tannins. Drink 2019 - 2027. 93 points

The Antoniottis have been making wine here for five generations, but they have been slowly planting more vines on the pink porphyry and are among those making beautiful wines: reds that are intoxicatingly perfumed, all rosewood, cedar, and dried rose petals with a gentle boskiness that is reminiscent of mushrooms. `Barolo and barbaresco are beautiful expressions of pure nebbiolo,` says Mattia, `And when 10 years ago you talked of a nebbiolo blend people said, ‘No, no, it’s no good,’ but opinions are changing.` `In the 1800s they talked of 40,000 hectares [100,000 acres] of vines in the whole of Alto Piemonte,` says Mattia. The downswing began with the onset of phylloxera in the late 19th century. Two severe, crop-decimating hailstorms in the early 1900s destabilised the growers still further and, `the Second World War was the final blow,` says Mattia. `Enough to say that in my small village in Bramaterra in the Seventies there were 110ha [270 acres] of vines, now there are 10ha [25 acres].` But things are changing, and the vineyards that fell back into woodland over the years are now being replanted as the scrub is stripped back out. `First of all with the good work of local producers, then with the interest of others, such as Conterno. We made a new vineyard last year. My father had wanted to make wine from that land for 20 years but hadn’t managed because the owners didn’t want to sell, but finally we succeeded, and other aziende [producers] are replanting, so things are beginning to grow.` These are good wines. I last drank the fragrant Antoniotti wines in London, at the Quality Chop House, with wild mushroom risotto, roast wood pigeon and taleggio. They’re wines to take your time over, and they suit northern Italian food – perhaps in this season try veal escalopes, or onion tart. Enjoy them. Victoria Moore, The Telegraph, March 2019