Drop 31 is all about Nebbiolo, but from two completely different perspectives. On one side, Lapo Berti, quietly farming a handful of tiny parcels in La Morra and making the kind of precise, refined Barolo that makes you wonder why his name is still flying so far under the radar. On the other, Alessandro Salvano, pushing his DWNL project further than ever with a Nebbiolo grown only metres beyond the official Barolo border. One wine has the famous name on the label. The other can never have it.

And that is exactly what makes this Drop so interesting. Lapo’s Fossati 2021 comes from one of La Morra’s recognised MGAs and shows the elegant, floral, quietly powerful side of Barolo. Alessandro’s Outside comes from Montelupo Albese, where an invisible line on a map means that despite the farming, Nebbiolo and long élevage, Barolo can never appear on the bottle. Instead of trying to imitate it, Alessandro takes that limitation and turns it into the whole identity of the wine. Two ambitious Nebbiolos, two very different ideas of origin and classification, and probably one of the best examples of why what is inside the bottle still matters more than what is written on it.