2007 Barolo Vigna Elena Riserva

(100% rose clone): Good full red. Currant, nutty oak, flowers and a note of sweet butter on the nose. Ripe, juicy and nicely delineated, with lovely delicacy but also good body and fleshiness to the suave red berry and floral flavors. Still a bit youthfully tight on the aromatic back end, but the tannins are fine-grained and the acidity ripe. A bit sweeter than usual for this bottling but still with a light touch.

The collection concludes with the truly stunning 2007 Barolo Riserva Vigna Elena. This wine radiates with a youthful looking ruby appearance and delightful aromatic complexity that spans the entire Nebbiolo playbook. From black licorice to dried cherry, mint and pressed violets, you get it all. I drank from the bottle one and two days after it was open and the wine displayed even more breathtaking beauty and complexity. It has the bones for some serious cellar aging should you decide to hold this bottle. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2035. A visit to the cellars of Elvio Cogno is always a fascinating learning experience. I had my first taste of a beautifully fresh and fragrant white wine made with the Nascetta grape here a few years ago. The variety was new to many of us then, but thanks to vintner Valter Fissore and his wife Nadia Cogno it is strongly identified with the territory today. More recently, the couple started to produce limited cases of Barbera d’Alba made from pre-phylloxera vines (most more than a century old). That they were able to tap into that ancient genetic patrimony in this well-trodden part of Italy is something of a small miracle. They are also credited with putting the little-known Novello township on the Barolo map. Importer: Imported by Elvio Cogno, Suasalito, CA; tel. (917) 699-2647

The 2007 Barolo Vigna Elena offers up freshly cut flowers, sweet red berries, anise and mint, all supported by the finest, silkiest tannins imaginable. It is also one of the freshest, most vibrant, finessed wines readers will come across in this vintage. The 2007 needs a few years to reach its apex, but it is stunningly beautiful today. There is a sense of timeless elegance in the glass that is simply breathtaking. The Vigna Elena is 100% Rosè clone, a Nebbiolo clone one rarely sees today. As it turns out, a few days before my visit, I tasted Vietti's 1978 Barolo Briacca (also 100% Rosè), a wine that has aged spectacularly well.