Up near the Italian-Swiss border, Alto Piemonte is on a tear. A white wine grower from this off-the-beaten-path region was my favorite wine discovery of 2024, and in 2025, the red-wine geniuses at Cantine Garrone have shipped us some of the most revelatory bottles of the year so far. In the high-elevation Valli Ossolane, once a trading route between Switzerland and Italy, the cooler air and region’s unique toppia vine-training combine to yield Nebbiolo—or Prünent, as it is known locally—that is extraordinarily high-toned, silky, and graceful. Made from vines planted in 1933 and aged the longest of the Garrones’ reds, this is the pinnacle of the family’s world-class Nebbioli. Don’t miss it! 

If you are familiar with Marco Tintero’s remarkable track record with the humbler side of Piemontese wine, it is impossible not to get excited about the prospect of what this overachieving vignaiolo can do with some of the region’s more venerated vineyard land in Barbaresco. It’s like watching what kind of magic the person who makes your favorite burger will do with a dry-aged Wagyu ribeye. Marco’s small production of Barbaresco originates in the famous crus of Balluri and Bricco di Neive, less than ten miles north of his cantina in Mango. In a new cellar in Barbaresco, he ferments his pristine Nebbiolo grapes in stainless steel before moving the wine to a long period of rest in traditional large, neutral oak botti. Both floral and stony, this approachable Barbaresco’s notes of dark berries, blood orange, and spice complement a wide variety of Piemontese dishes, but will also sing alongside that ribeye. 

Boasting the highest elevation in Barolo, an unusual northern exposure facing the Alps, and a complex patchwork of soils, Serradenari is one of the region’s most intriguing crus. It gives Giulia Negri, an ardent Burgundy lover, a singular platform to take the Côte d’Or’s blueprint of terroir devotion and apply it to her own backyard, where she farms vineyards that span an incredible variety of soils and elevations. Inspired by the diverse terroirs throughout her estate, she has created three distinct Baroli. The parcel behind the Serradenari bottling features the most sand and shallowest soil of her Barolo vines, yielding a beautiful, bracing, tightly wound, and vibrant Nebbiolo full of cherry, rose petals, and citrus.