Above: Silvia and Nino Rocca preside over the kitchen and dining room of one of Piedmont’s most important wine destinations, Da Felicin in Monforte d’Alba. I took this photo in March when I dined there with the Barbera 7.

It was Charles Scicolone who, many years ago, first told me about Da Felicin, one of the great restaurants of Piedmont’s Langa hills and one of the world’s most important wine destinations — especially for those of us who worship in the temple of Nebbiolo.

Today, over at VinoWire, I’ve posted a translation of a post by my colleague and co-editor of the blog, Mr. Franco Ziliani (Italy’s A-number-1 wine blogger), about a very special bottle of wine that Felicin’s owner Nino Rocca shared with him. I hope that you’ll find Mr. Ziliani’s notes on this wine as moving as I did.

But, more importantly, this post — in part because of Mr. Ziliani’s interview of Armando Cordero, who made the wine in question — should be required reading for anyone trying to wrap their mind around what great Nebbiolo truly is and the modernist-vs.-traditionalist dialectic that is taking place on the ground in Langa. The information contained therein is subtle but fundamental. So please have a look…

Buona lettura, as they say in Italian…