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Brezza, Barolo Sarmassa, 1996

Red Wine from Piedmont, Italy
by Brezza
$139.99
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1996 is the kind of Piedmont vintage collectors organize cellars around — a legendary classical year of structure, perfume, and decades of life. Brezza's Sarmassa is its denser, clay-driven Barolo-village cru, and Enzo Brezza (godson of Bartolo Mascarello, fourth-generation steward of an estate founded in 1885) brought this one up in big Slavonian botti the old way: long macerations, no shortcuts, time as an ingredient. Twenty-nine years on, it has arrived at full maturity — the architecture intact, the fruit gone savory and sanguine, the tannins polished into something that disappears into the wine. A museum piece that's still very much alive on the palate.

Shipping

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  • Wine-Specific Protective Packaging: Specialized materials designed to maintain label integrity and prevent breakage during transit.
  • Provenance Assured: All wines are maintained in climate-controlled conditions at our shop until the moment of dispatch.

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Email: help@flatiron-wines.com
Phone: (212) 477-1315

More about Brezza

While we are fortunate that the fashion for big & bold, flashy & opulent has seen its day in Barolo, that doesn't mean that every traditionally made Barolo manages to achieve the harmony and elegance that we seek—but Brezza delivers.

The wines from this address have always been good, but they've become truly fine in recent years. Enzo is the driving force behind the huge step up in quality that this old estate has taken in the past decade or so, as well as their conversion to organic viticulture. He makes unfailingly honest and delicate wines of purpose.

Brezza's wines are all from hand-harvested estate fruit and are fermented spontaneously with indigenous yeasts. The Baroli are aged in 3,000L untoasted Slavonian oak botti. None of the wines are fined or filtered. The results are classic beauties of red fruit and charm.

Wine Details

  • Grape Variety

    Nebbiolo

  • Vintage

    1996

  • Size

    750ml

  • Farming Practice

    Traditional

  • Sweetness

    Dry

  • Body

    Full Bodied

Flatiron's Take

From the Importer

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Tasting Notes & Food Pairings

Perfect Pairings

Truffle is the move if the season cooperates — tajarin al tartufo, eggs and truffle, or a porcini-stuffed roast. Otherwise, slow-cooked beef cheek or wild boar ragu.

Tasting Profile

Mature dark cherry, dried rose, leather, sandalwood, and forest floor. The palate is full but silken, tannins fully polished, and the finish goes savory and long with a mineral undertow.

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