You didn't plan to end up here.

You were supposed to be in Milan — a meeting, a handshake, something forgettable. But somewhere between Turin and Alba, the fog came down off the Alps and the taxi driver, a man of few words and strong opinions, took a different road.

Now you're standing at the edge of a vineyard in the Langhe, and a woman with flour still on her apron is pressing a glass into your hand without being asked.

This is the 2022 Battaglio Barbaresco. Gianluca made 1,500 bottles. His family picked every cluster by hand — the same hands that pruned the vines in February, in cold that made your breath visible at noon.

The 2022 is not the 2021. It doesn't want to be. Where last year had backbone and insistence, this one settles into you differently — unhurried, generous, almost luxurious. The fruit is fresh cherry and rose petal, but underneath runs something richer, something that coats the glass slowly. The tannins are present but they've been smoothed by the vintage, the way river stones are smoothed by years of water moving over them. The finish is long, dry, classically Italian — and the creaminess lingers well past the last sip.

Decant two hours. Pour into something wide.

The wine will change between dinner and midnight. Let it.

-Tony Margiotta 

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