Tiziano Mazzoni, Nebbiolo, 'Ai Livelli', Ghemme

This wine isn’t just good — it is a monumental expression of high-elevation Nebbiolo. Some of my favorite Nebbiolo produced in Italy doesn’t come from Barolo or Barbaresco. It comes from old vines in the hills just to the north, where vineyards climb higher in elevation and Nebbiolo takes on a slightly different personality — often more lifted, more perfumed, almost Burgundy-like in its elegance. Tiziano Mazzoni has long been one of those producers who absolutely blows me away, and today we received a very small allocation of his top wine: “Ai Livelli” 2019, drawn from his oldest plot of vines planted in 1968. The aromatics alone are mesmerizing — soaring red fruit, crushed roses, minerals and spice — the kind of perfume and flavors that immediately brings the great traditionalists of Barolo and Barbaresco to mind. Giuseppe Mascarello and Roagna aren’t crazy comparisons here. Don’t believe me? Try it. This wine is absolutely stunning. At this price, it will be difficult to find a better bottle of Nebbiolo anywhere. This is the horse to bet on today.

Piedmont sits just north of Liguria in northwestern Italy, where the Italian Riviera meets that famous turquoise Mediterranean water. Drive north about an hour and you arrive in Alba, the heart of the Langhe and home to Barolo and Barbaresco — the most famous appellations in the region. But keep going. Another hour toward the Alps and the landscape begins to change. The hills rise, the air cools, and the snow-capped peaks begin to loom larger on the horizon. You’ve arrived in Alto Piemonte, one of the historic homes of Nebbiolo. In the 19th century, wines from these alpine foothills were often more celebrated than those of the Langhe, served on the tables of Europe’s aristocracy long before Barolo became the global icon it is today. The appellations scattered across these hills — Gattinara, Boca, Lessona, Bramaterra, and Ghemme — sit on ancient volcanic soils and produce Nebbiolo, known locally as Spanna, with remarkable perfume, lift, and mineral tension.

Ghemme itself is one of the most beautiful corners of northern Piedmont: vineyards surrounded by medieval castles, quiet stone villages, forests, and the dramatic backdrop of the Alps rising to the north. The soils here — a mix of volcanic stone and clay — give the wines both structure and finesse. With barely 200 acres planted and fewer than two dozen producers, it remains one of Italy’s smallest DOCG zones, yet for those who understand Nebbiolo deeply, it is one of the most compelling places on earth to grow it.

Tiziano Mazzoni is one of the producers leading the quiet renaissance of this tiny appellation. His family has deep roots in Ghemme, though like many northern Italian families after World War II, his father left farming during the industrial boom of the 1960s to work in a factory. Tiziano eventually felt the pull back to the land. After years riding his motorcycle south toward the Langhe and exploring the wines of Barolo, he returned home and in 1999 purchased three acres of vineyard, including a parcel planted in 1968 — a symbolic bridge between his family’s past and his own return to the land. Today he farms just 11 acres, producing fewer than 1,200 cases per year and working organically with minimal intervention. His flagship bottling, Ai Livelli, comes from that original vineyard in the Roncati subzone of Ghemme, where vines sit at roughly 780 feet in elevation rooted in mineral-rich volcanic soils mixed with clay.

The grapes are harvested by hand and fermented with indigenous yeasts, remaining on the skins for roughly forty days to slowly extract Nebbiolo’s structure and aromatic depth. The wine then ages for eighteen months in older French tonneaux followed by another eighteen months in traditional large botti before resting further in bottle prior to release. It is bottled unfined and unfiltered, allowing the vineyard to speak clearly.

In the glass, the 2019 Ai Livelli is a stunning and pure expression of Nebbiolo. Aromas of red and black cherry, pomegranate, dried orange peel, crushed rose petals, wet leaves, dried herbs, pepper, and baking spice rise immediately from the glass. With air, deeper tones of earth, iron, and mineral begin to unfold. On the palate it is both elegant and delicately structured — silky layers of red fruit gliding over fine, chalky tannins, finishing long, savory, and distinctly mineral.

At the table, this wine begs for the rustic, deeply satisfying cuisine of Alto Piemonte. Think tajarin pasta with slow-braised ragù, delicate agnolotti del plin with butter and sage, or risotto with wild mushrooms gathered from the forests that surround these vineyards. It is equally perfect alongside braised beef slowly cooked in red wine, pepper-crusted Fassona beef, or a simple board of air-dried salumi and aged alpine cheeses like Toma or Castelmagno. Serve in a Burgundy stem at about 60°F after a 30-minute decant to allow the aromatics to fully unfurl. For anyone who loves great Nebbiolo, this bottle is a reminder that some of the most compelling expressions of the grape are still found in the quiet alpine hills just north of the Langhe.