Sorelle de Nicola, Barbaresco Riserva Feyles 2014 - 75cl
The name on the label is Feyles, and there's a story behind it. Sorelle de Nicola trace back to 1964, when Maria Feyles and her son-in-law Antonio de Nicola bought a parcel called Montesommo in Neive — a slope of Nebbiolo planted to old Lampia clones in 1970, opposite the Bordini district. Antonio, into his eighties, has quietly made every vintage here for decades. This is that fruit: a single-vineyard Barbaresco Riserva bottled the old way, with no reaching for effect.
Neive sits in the eastern reach of Barbaresco, where Nebbiolo tends to build perfume and sinew rather than sheer weight. The 2014 growing season was cool and wet across Piedmont — a year that tested Barolo but treated Barbaresco more kindly, rewarding the growers who waited. The de Nicola approach suits it: long fermentation on wild yeast, then around two years in large Slavonian casks, then a further stretch resting in bottle before release.
Expect a wine already showing its age gracefully — ruby turning to garnet at the rim, orange tints at the edge. The nose leads with faded violet, dried rose and pipe tobacco, then plum skin, walnut husk and a savoury undertow of dried herb. The palate is medium-bodied and drawn out, tannins fine-grained and slightly resinous, acidity keeping it lifted through a long, tea-leaf finish. Traditional Barbaresco, in other words — earn a little patience and it repays you.
Pour it for a slow autumn dinner, or any evening you want Nebbiolo that talks rather than shouts.
How to Serve
Serve at 16-18°C in a large Burgundy-style bowl. A decade in, it needs less muscle than a young Barbaresco — thirty to forty-five minutes open, or a gentle decant off any light sediment, is plenty to lift the aromatics.
Where to Drink It
Noble Rot, Lamb's Conduit Street — a wine list that lives for this kind of aged, unshowy Nebbiolo. Trullo in Islington, for the northern-Italian cooking it was made beside. Bocca di Lupo in Soho, if you want regional plates to follow the bottle around Piedmont.
Food Pairings
I'd reach for a plate of tajarin with butter and sage, or a slow-braised beef cheek — dishes with enough savoury depth to meet those dried-herb, walnut notes without smothering the perfume.
