La Spinetta, founded by Giorgio Rivetti and his siblings in Castagnole Lanze in the Asti zone, emerged in the 1990s as one of Piedmont’s most discussed and critically admired estates, producing Barbaresco of a style that departed significantly from the traditional Langhe school: earlier destemming, shorter macerations, ageing in French barriques rather than large Slavonian casks, and a consistent emphasis on richness, aromatic precision and early accessibility that positioned the estate alongside the modernist producers who were reshaping Piedmont’s international image. The Barbaresco Vigneto Starderi is one of three single-vineyard Barbaresco wines produced by La Spinetta, drawn from a specific site in the Neive subzone whose Helvetian Tortonian soils produce Nebbiolo of considerable structural concentration and aromatic complexity.

The 2008 Barbaresco vintage was one of the finest and most consistent of the decade, producing wines of outstanding structure, natural acidity and aromatic precision that have proved to develop exceptionally well over the fifteen years since release. In the warm, opulent style associated with La Spinetta, the 2008 Starderi provides both the richness of a fully ripe vintage and the structural depth that the Starderi vineyard’s calcareous marl and Tortonian limestone reliably delivers. At this level of ageing, the wine will have shed much of its primary fruit character and replaced it with the complex secondary and tertiary aromas of dried rose petal, tar, iron, leather and the undergrowth mineral complexity that defines mature Nebbiolo from the finest Barbaresco crus.

A 2008 La Spinetta Barbaresco Starderi now represents one of the rarest and most developed expressions of this producer’s single-vineyard Barbaresco programme currently available. The vintage is universally regarded among Piedmont specialists as outstanding for its longevity and development, and the La Spinetta style, with its early-open aromatic character and well-integrated tannins, should be drinking beautifully in the present period and through the early 2030s. For collectors who seek fully mature Barbaresco of documented provenance and outstanding vintage quality, the 2008 Starderi is a wine of exceptional interest.

Mature garnet with an evolved and complex nose of dried rose, tar, iron, dark cherry liqueur, truffle, leather and a fine tobacco note from fifteen years of bottle development. Full-bodied with supple, well-resolved tannins, excellent natural acidity and a long, savoury, mineral finish of great tertiary complexity. Drinking beautifully now through 2030.