2001 Sella Lessona Alto Piemonte 13.0%
Needed something to go with a triple cream Pierre Robert, so it had to be able to cut a swath through the fat (ugh, just writing this makes me want to wipe my hands). The acidity of Italian reds is traditionally higher than that of other nations' and the best explanation I've seen so far is that they developed, through natural selection, over generations of mammas, to compete with the acidity of tomato sauce (playing in theaters everywhere).
At first, pleasant aromas of coffee, tar/rubber and iodine, without much fruit. With time, additional notes of truffle, increasing doses of welcome leather and, finally, some deep red cherry. First mouthful confirms the tar/rubber and shows a healthy dose of acidity, backed by pleasant, medium-weight tannins. With food, this settles into the perfect acid/sweet balance for which it was, presumably, designed. Best showing of this wine so far; alas, the final bottle. Perhaps the two previous exemplars suffered from the expectation that it be a junior Barolo, when it is not built for tough love or sumptuous consumption.