“It was, by far, the hardest vintage of my career,” Giulia Negri said as she began pouring her 2024 Langhe Nebbiolo into the expectant glasses of a small KLWM delegation in her cellar in late April. For a moment, I braced myself to taste a wine bearing the scars of constant rain and an endless series of tough decisions and compromises which Giulia—and many of her peers across Italy and France—had to make that summer. As I took my first sip, though, I fell right back under the spell Giulia has cast over us these last several years.
     Her Langhe Nebbiolo was so fresh, so beautifully balanced, so full of finesse, that I wondered, had I heard her correctly? Yes, she confirmed, I heard right: the rain came, the ground was impassable for much of the harvest, and she was forced to leave a good part of her crop on the vines. And yet, what she was able to salvage, she turned into something magical.
     As the tasting came to a close, I turned away for a moment to check on the status of the ship carrying this Langhe Nebbiolo to Oakland. If it was going to land before we were due to return, I was ready to text my colleagues back home, “Hardest vintage ever—wine no good” so that they didn’t snap it all up before we could get our hands on a few bottles ourselves. With its silky tannins, and the way it gracefully pirouettes across the palate, it’s a wine I want to drink all summer. Fortunately, the ship wasn’t arriving for two more weeks so my colleagues were spared that Machiavellian text.
     Fast forward to now, and the 2024 Langhe Nebbiolo has just landed. If you love graceful Nebbiolo, please don’t miss this wine before it’s gone because all of my colleagues love it as much as I do, and we won’t receive another shipment until the next vintage is ready!