BARBARESCO

2010 Cotta' Sottimano

Grapes Nebbiolo
Colour Red
Origin Italy, Piedmont
Village Barbaresco
ABV 14%

More clay here. Lightish ruby. More dusty and stemmy on the nose – more herbal – than the 2015. Dry, super-fine tannins like tissue paper. Floral and chalky and still so youthful. Immensely long. Drinking range: 2020 - 2035 Rating: 17.5 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2019)


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Or, check the RELATED PRODUCTS below for different vintages or wines of a similar style.


A wine with dried-mushroom and cedar character, plus hints of plums. Full-bodied, chewy and firm. This is clearly the best wine of Sottimano in 2010. Needs time to soften a little: better in 2016. Rating: 93 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2014)

Bright, saturated medium red. Raspberry, brown spices and earth on the nose, accented by a note of wild sage. At once silky and bright, showing tangy floral lift to the intense, tightly coiled red berry and earth flavors. Juicy, sharply delineated wine with a sexy topnote of blood orange. Finishes with fine tannins and terrific persistence and lift. Barbaresco for the Burgundy lover. Rating: 93 Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar (Nov 2013)

The 2010 Barbaresco Cottà shows considerable breadth and body, but it is the wine's striking inner perfume and sheer beauty that stands out most. Dark red cherries, plums, mocha, spices and leather blossom in a wine endowed with serious depth. A rich, generous finish rounds things out in style. This is another drop-dead gorgeous wine from Sottimano Drinking range: 2016 - 2030 Rating: 94+ Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Oct 2013)

Sottimano

The next generation of Andrea, Elena and Claudia Sottimano are now at the helm here and this exquisite estate continues to make better and better wines - some of the finest in Barbaresco. This sixteen hectare estate is based in the Cotta' region of Barbaresco, and the Sottimano family have over the years bought outstanding vineyards in the 'crus' of Currà, Cottà, Fausoni, Pajore and Basarin. In the vineyard they work organically and aim to limit yields. The winemaking is as low-intervention as possible, using only natural yeasts and then bottling without filtering or fining. All of these 'crus' are given exactly the same élevage, so as to allow the individual 'terroirs' to express their character. Terroir expression is the target here - and these amazing wines are as much an education as a joy to drink.

There are five different crus - each with very specific attributes where they produce their distinctly different Barbarescos. The latest edition is Basarin, with a mixture of clay, limestone and sand, is at about four hundred metres above sea level. This produces the estate's Langhe Nebbiolo, which is basically 'village Barbaresco', as the vines are very young (10-15 years old). It makes for wines that are always very elegant, refined, tannins are silky and softer, nuanced of spices and herbs (eucalyptus).

Fausoni, on sand and clay, makes wines that are always very elegant - mint, liquorice and little red fruits. This is in the historical part of Neive.

Currà, on clay and limestone, is one of the smallest cru of the whole appellation, wines are always very intense and powerful, hard-bodied and with good tannins. Hints of spices and smoke are characteristics of this area.

Cottà, on limestone with clay is one of the oldest cru in Barbaresco, vines are always very old here (fifty years and older) and the colours are just a little bit lighter than other vineyards (because of the clay), but they have a very distinctive nose of dark fruits and mint, a great elegance and mineral tannins.

Pajore is almost entirely on limestone with just a little clay. This is the highest vineyard of all, at 420 metres above sea level. The vines are very old, and it is always the most mineral and elegant of the four Barbarescos. Limestone brings into the wine a great purity of fruit, a distinctive aroma of spices and tobacco (cigar box) and a very unusual quality of tannins, firm but very mineral.

This wine isn't currently part of a mixed case, but you can always browse our full selection of mixed cases here.
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