92
Marchesi di Gresy 2011 Barbaresco Martinenga
This wine smells like game being seared in a well-seasoned cast iron pan with a side of red cranberries, red currants, black plum skin and licorice jam. Its currently very firm and bracing tannins make this wine reserved in style today, and its character is further highlighted by the wine’s brisk, if integrated, acidity. However, the lingering finish and compact layers of flavor show promise. So, I decanted this wine for two hours, bottled it up overnight as it still wasn’t showing much, then let a glass sit for a hour untouched on the second day. It still was petulantly wound up. Rather than give up hope, just don’t open your bottles for a while.
Drink: 2018-21

89
Marchesi di Gresy 2014 Nebbiolo Langhe Martinenga
This may well have been my favorite of this tasting of Marchesi di Gresy. It is perfumed and accessible, showing all the intrigue and joy Nebbiolo can bring. This wine smells of rose petals, dried strawberries, tobacco leaf and beef jerky spices - just as Nebbiolo should by its textbook description. Its fruit is clean, its tannins are impressively tame for young Nebbiolo, and its lifting acidity is well-placed. The moderate finish suggests this should be drunk up relatively young, though there is enough depth of expression to keep this evolving to benefit for at least several years.
Drink: 2016-19

88
Marchesi di Gresy 2013 Barbera d’Asti
This mid-depth, garnet-colored wine with ruby highlights is youthful on the nose and lithe on the palate. It definitely shows it is from cooler Asti rather than other, more robust Barbera appellations in Piedmont. Still, it has solid concentration of tart red cherries and blackberries laced with licorice. It could surely use a few more years in bottle to really show its stuff given its concentrated, medium finish.
Drink: 2018-20

85
Marchesi di Gresy 2012 Dolcetto d’Alba Monte Aribaldo
This is a producer that generally makes generous and forward wines. However, the house style has changed in the last few years. Somewhere between this distinctive change and the vintage of 2012 in Piedmont, this willful, difficult wine was born. It is strict in fruit flavors, barely allowing bitter blackberry nuances to shine through. The palate is flat and the flavors finish short. The jolting acidity adds to the tenison, even for a Dolcetto. The moderate, minerally finish shows there’s some good substance here, but the wine overall feels stripped. Perhaps it is just this bottle?
Drink: 2016-18

90
Marchesi di Gresy 2014 Moscato d’Asti La Serra
This wine shows a beautiful, pale straw color and tiny, frothy bubbles. Light and airy with fresh field flowers and an impressive youthfulness, despite being 15 months past vintage. It’s fun and easy with mouthwatering acidity so integrated you hardly notice the filigree sweetness of the residual sugar. This is lithe, delish and totally gulpable, between its exotic array of peaches, nectarines and guava and its structural refinement.
Drink: 2016-17