A couple of months ago, we offered a small parcel of 2016 Nebbiolo from Franco Anselma. It was exactly the kind of wine we love to find: a great Piedmont vintage, real bottle age, a serious traditional producer, and a price that still made sense. It sold out almost instantly. And honestly, we assumed that was that. Mature Nebbiolo from 2016 does not exactly fall out of the sky.

Amazingly, today we have another one. This time the wine comes from Paolo Scavino, one of the great names of Barolo, and it gives us a fascinating counterpoint to the Anselma. Anselma is deeply traditional: old-school, earthy, austere in the best way, the kind of Nebbiolo that feels as if it comes from another era.

Scavino has a different history. The estate became famous as one of Barolo’s more modern-minded producers, with cleaner lines, more polish, and a more precise style. But over the years Scavino has also dialed back the modernity, moving toward a beautifully balanced expression of Nebbiolo that combines purity, perfume, and structure.

Both approaches work, especially in a vintage like 2016. That was one of those dream Piedmont years, when Nebbiolo had everything it needs: ripeness without heaviness, freshness without greenness, structure without harshness. The great Barolos from 2016 are now collector wines, often expensive and often still in need of time. But a Langhe Nebbiolo from the same vintage offers a different pleasure. It is Nebbiolo with the waiting already done.

Scavino’s Langhe Nebbiolo is not an afterthought. It comes from serious Nebbiolo fruit, including declassified Barolo grapes, and is made to show the grape’s aromatic beauty in a more open, graceful frame. At nearly a decade old, the wine has moved past simple cherry and rose into the mature Nebbiolo spectrum: dried flowers, orange peel, spice, leather, earth, and fine, resolved tannins. It has the elegance and clarity you expect from Scavino, but with the added complexity that only time can bring.

The Anselma showed us one side of 2016 Nebbiolo: traditional, soulful, autumnal. This Scavino shows another: polished, fragrant, precise, and beautifully mature. We would happily drink either style. The real point is that back-vintage Nebbiolo from 2016, from a producer of this caliber, at this kind of price, is not something we expect to keep finding.

Paolo Scavino, Langhe Nebbiolo, 2016 $43.99