What a Recipe Headnote Means and How to Substitute for Barolo

In the recent Milk Street publication I am looking at the Baralo Braised Beef Short ribs recipe tells us to look at there "Head Note' for an explanation of the wine? Pardon my ignorance but in my 70 years reading recipes this is the only reference to a head note i have seen. I researched the term and each reference led me to the term being a legal term used by lawyers. I am a simple cook and not a legal scholar. Is there not another term or mechanism you could use to explain what things like Barola are? Many of the ingredients in some of your recipes are difficult if not impossible to obtain...Barolo wine is one of those ingredients.