The Rivetti brothers of La Spinetta - the Piedmont winery with the distinctive rhino label - are famed for their fruit-forward takes on Barbaresco.
These powerful-yet-elegant wines drawn from single vineyards have come to define what author, vintner, and restaurateur Joseph Bastianich calls "postmodernist" Italian winemaking - single-mindedly quality-driven, shaped by the latest international techniques and also expensive (near $150 a bottle in Pennsylvania.)
Before their Barbarescos, though, La Spinetta's first red was Ca' di Pian ("House on the top of the Hill,") a far more affordable wine made from the Barbera grape. Typically much lighter and more accessible than the nebbiolo used for Barbaresco, Spinetta's rendition is Barbera at its fullest, due in part to intense vineyard pruning that yields only half the typical amount of fruit and concentrates flavors - juicy dark cherries woven with minerality and earthy spice, then a long dark finish.