One of the best bargain nebbiolo out there is Marchesi di Gresy's Nebbiolo Langhe Martinenga. I opened the 2005 edition of this wine last night and found it to be absolutely delicious. Classic floral, tar and cherry aromas of nebbiolo, with nicely sweet red fruit, fine tannin, persistent flavors and acid savor that begs you to take another taste. For real Peidmontese nebbiolo character, you can't do much better for the money than this bottle of essentially declassified Barbaresco from the cru Martinenga vineyard. Sometimes wines in this low level classification taste overly acidic and fruitless. Not this one.
Today I got out my copy of Sheldon and Pauline Wasserman's book Noble Red Wines of Italy to look up information about old Vietti Barbara, after reading a note online about a 1978 Vietti that showed very nicely. Without thinking about it, I came across their evaluation of Marchesi di Gresy's 1982 Nebbiolo Martinenga. They wrote: "Expansive aroma rises from the glass, suggestings of cherries and gingerbread; a lot of fruit upon entry and a lot of fruit at the end, it seems to miss some fruit in the middle. **" That sounds remarkably like my experience, thought the mid-palate in the 2005 isn't lacking as they describe. This wine doesn't have the intensity for cellaring, but it's terrific right now and probably will last a few years.
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