People often say the first Barolo in a producer’s range is the cantina’s business card, but for those on a more modest wine budget looking for inspiration and Nebbiolo dreams, it might be Brandini’s mercurial Langhe Nebbiolo ‘Filari Corti.’ Picked earlier than Nebbiolo for their Barolos, it strikes with upfront and bright fruit and flower nuances: first-of-the-season farmer’s market strawberries and raspberries, pink and red flowers, sweet rose, poppy, meyer lemon and orange, and extremely clean lees—this last being an intoxicating tasting note for those in the know. Lively and taut, classic regional and varietal notes of sweet licorice and tar creep back up on the finish. Despite its seductive approach, it’s also plenty serious. With similar cask-aging obligations to that of a Barbaresco (nine months minimum in wood for this DOCG), it’s aged twelve months in large wooden casks. It comes from numerous organic parcels with an average age of fifteen years from Alba, Monforte d’Alba, and La Morra, with an altitude range between 270m to almost 500m, which brings breadth and layering that emerges once one’s palate is settled in after the infatuation period.