009 Mirù Vespolina from Ghemme, picked up from a lovely visit to their family winery. Recommended if you happen to find yourself there are want a very homely experience. Marco and his family are very hospitable. The wine in fine shape, indeed a little more primary than the other bottle which was consumed a couple of years ago. Cherry comes through strongly on the nose, along with star anise. Some initial VA has blown off within the hour. On the palate, the cherry has a slightly sour edge. Tannins are subtle and now in the background, but with lightly refreshing acidity gives a lovely appetising balance. A lovely wine for summer where you want a little more complexity and calmness of almost a decade's age.
IIRC it cost ~ €6 at the winery, a stupidly fine value. I'd love to see it here, but I doubt there is the interest. Indeed it's not listed outside a couple of places in Italy. Japan seems to like it though.
We picked this up when we drove to Piemonte in 2012, and hence had space in the car (just enough space to fit a forumite as long as he didn't mind wine boxes for armrests!). One of the perils of flying, is limited luggage space makes purchases of such wines harder - the limited capacity generally resulting in only the fancier wines making it back. That's a real shame, as such wines fill a very real gap in the cellar, whereas those fancier wines can generally be obtained here, albeit ~ 20-30% more expensive. On out last trip to Piemonte (a 'grocery shopping' trip to Torino) I made a conscious effort to focus on the more unusual, partly from this realisation, and partly fuelled by the excellent tasting that Mark Priestley organised covering lesser known Piemonte wines. There is great joy in addition to Barolo and Barbaresco.
Starting to think about our next trip, Ghemme (and the excellent agriturismo Il Cavenago) was always on the cards, but the countryside around Ivrea has some interest, and Tortona (home of Timorasso and it looked good on last year's Giro coverage) are in pole position. That would mean no Langhe, no Cuneo, no Aosta and no return trip to Bubbio, but such is life. Trying to fit more in typically means you see (and enjoy) less.
Regards
Ian
p.s. For those who haven't heard of Vespolina, it's a close relative of Nebbiolo, historically blended as a secondary grape with Nebbiolo (and a splash of Uva Rara or Bonarda in Ghemme). A surge in varietal bottlings is something I'm very happy about, as the grape has plenty personality to stand on its own.