While officially the Margherita Otto estate is a relative newcomer to Monforte d'Alba scene, proprietor Alan Manley is not, as longtime associate of and right-hand man to Maria Teresa Mascarello at Cantina Bartolo Mascarello (this after time with Luciano Sandrone and Alfio and Giuseppe Cavallotto.) Alan's wines, in keeping with his mentor, are utterly traditional and follow the Mascarello approach to assemblaggio, in which fruit from different places was to bring it together before fermentation, thereby achieving complete marriage of the different characters. While blending of sites obviously continues today, this particular, highly artisanal approach has almost completely disappeared. Named after his grandparents, the Margherita Otto ethos remains small-scale and old-world: hand-managed, co-fermented plots, native yeasts, long macerations, with long aging in large botti. His first vintage was in 2015, and beginning in 2019, he's made a microscopic amount of Langhe Nebbiolo in addition to the Barolo, in the same style but vinified for earlier drinking. Pulled from vines in Vignane as well as declassified Barolo fruit from Castiglione and Serralunga, his Langhe Nebbiolo is intoxicatingly fragrant, with a gorgeous nose of red cherries, roses, and violets. Bright framing acids and fine tannins make this immediately mouth-watering, but also suited to a bit more time laid down (and/or a patient decant this autumn.) You can immediately sense the old-school influences and particular pedigree in all of Alan's wine – they really are a wonderful kind of blast from the past – elegant, complex, classic.