The hills of Monforte d’Alba are never quiet; they hum with history, with the ghosts of vineyard workers and the endless whisper of Nebbiolo vines reaching skyward. In this little corner of Piedmont, the Pecchenino family has been shaping wine for generations, their roots going back to the late 1700s. What began as a small farm passed through family hands has grown into one of the region’s great interpreters of Nebbiolo — but without ever losing the sense of intimacy, of earth beneath fingernails, of life unfolding in vineyard rows. Their Baroli are not just wines; they are characters in an opera, tragic and comic, elegant and unruly.

The Le Coste di Monforte vineyard, facing southeast at 440 meters above sea level, is a stage set. Marl soils of chalk and clay reflect sunlight like faded footlights, giving Nebbiolo the structure and drama it demands. In 2019, the fruit was harvested and led into steel vats, where a submerged cap kept the skins pressed deep into their own juice — a slow, tactile fermentation. Malolactic came quietly in steel, before the wine was dressed in neutral oak casks of 25 hectoliters, where it dreamed for two years, then reposed in cool cement tanks, steadying itself for its public debut.

And what a debut: in the glass, the 2019 Barolo Le Coste is a young prima donna. Its robe is garnet, limpid and luminous, like the velvet curtain before the overture. On the nose, violets and roses float past, then darker notes emerge — smoke curling from a trattoria’s hearth, licorice twists, crushed mint leaves, tobacco leaf drying in the sun. On the palate, cherries — ripe yet taut — dance with earthy truffles, white pepper, and whispers of leather. The tannins are sculpted but firm, the acidity a lively counterpoint, like a flute cutting through the orchestra. It is a wine of tension and grace, a Barolo that insists on patience yet charms you even in its fiery youth.

This is Pecchenino’s gift: to craft a Barolo that feels both eternal and fleeting, both rooted in centuries of family tradition and yet immediate, alive, like a carnival scene caught on celluloid. The 2019 Le Coste di Monforte is not just a wine — it is Fellini’s circus, a swirl of music, memory, and mystery bottled beneath cork and glass.