Elio Filippino Barbaresco Riserva DOCG 'San Cristoforo' 2012

When we first met Elio, he had about 10 nebbiolo wines on tasting! From the first sip, we knew we were on to something very, very special. Elio said that their production was around 80,000 bottles per year which is a small operation and fits our artisan vision perfectly. Elio has a hand in just about every facet of the operation from tending the vines on the farm, to picking and pressing, and every process during vinification, as well as a hand in sales and marketing. He is a man that wants perfection at every turn.

His passion is nebbiolo and Piedmont is his playing ground. Elio focusses his attention on the most famous wine towns in Piedmont, Barbaresco and Barolo, each with a population under a thousand. In these regions there are more vineyards than people and although all of Elio’s wines were impressive, we couldn’t take them all back to Oz! We picked 3 from many fine examples and this one is the flagship of our trio. It is all about Christmas pudding on both the nose and palate, lots of stewed and soured dates, sultanas and cherries, then throw in lashings of dirt at which point you can just about smell the farm. This is a very intense and complex wine that has layer upon layer of flavours.

Although it comes already with several years’ age, it has another few decades to go if you are more patient than us. If you’re a must-have-it-now kind of person like us, then try it with wagyu beef char grilled on a barbie (click for recipe), served with a creamy mushroom sauce. You will be transported to another universe! You could possibly imagine yourself as a Roman Caesar or Cleopatra, sitting down to the finest fare and beverage under the human sun. If we could design heaven, this food and wine combo would be on its menu every day!

Popsy & JJ tasted and food matched July 2021

Glass

We recommend using a Burgundy glass.

Cellaring

Drink from now until you’re too old to drink

Decanter

Decant 2 hours before drinking - it needs air!