Best Barolo for under $60

I'm in much the same boat as you are. Barolos tend to be pricey and hit-or-miss experimentation can disappoint more often than not.

Three that I've enjoyed the meet your criteria are:

Beni di Batasiolo (I've got remnants of a case of '98 still on the shelf); Ceretto Barolo Zonchera (none currently in my larder, but I've tasted several years--'93, 95, 98 and found them acceptable if not huge wines); and Stefan Farino (I had several bottles of '97 and had mixed notes--one reported as watery while another I commented was "big and mouth-filling". YMMV) All three of these were in the $30 range.

I had some very good luck in finding Italian wines by researching the reserve wine list at Biaggi's, a fairly small upscale chain of Italian restaurants. (The concept works at any good restaurant, of course.)

Find something you wish to try and bite the bullet of paying the restaurant markup. Talk with the waiter, maitre'd or sommelier (a rare species seldom encountered in American eateries these days...) and ask for opinions or comparisons. Most good joints have regular training sessions to develop the staff's palate and knowledge of stocked wines.

Typically a good restaurant selects good QPR wines for their list so you've already got a preliminary filtering done. If you try some of their Barolos and find them to your liking, you then hit the Web and the usual suspects to find a source to buy more (Zachy's, Sam's, etc. come to mind.)

The danger is that one or two of these discoveries will lead to an average cost of going out to dinner for two of about $500 when you factor in the case of wine you order the next day.

Ed Rasimus Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret) "When Thunder Rolled" www.thunderchief.org www.thundertales.blogspot.com