Barbaresco, Gallina, 2018

Gallina is the next ridge down from Albesani with the same south-west exposition. One of the great vineyards of the Langhe, Busso can count some very salubrious neighbours who have gradually moved in. The deeper soils with a higher clay content tends to produce wines with a little more power in the early going, but the 2018 has found its feet already as the most expressive and stylish incarnation of this wine we have tasted. Perfumed, silky red fruits and broad but ripe and overall gentle tannins vie with subtle camphor and blood orange droplets. With aeration, spicy aniseed, sweet earth and other savoury notes emerge. Intricate, harmonious and radiant. A really exceptional wine – one of our standouts of the entire tasting trip. A clay-dominated, south-west exposed vineyard that faces the river, Gallina has a very windy microclimate despite it not being particularly high, 240 metres altitude. Ageing is the same as for the other crus, 2 years in Slavonian oak casks, but it is kept an extra year in bottle before release.