Barbaresco

Assam, cherry and chalky minerals on the nose and palate support the forthright tannins typical of this amazing site. A masterclass in elegance and power, with deceptive concentration, depth and persistence. Drink from 2022+.
Katherine Dart MW, Wine Buyer

The sign of a great winemaker is in their ability to create something delcious and expressive of place and variety regardless of the challenges that nature throws at them. This wine is a perfect example. Bright, energetic and lively, the fruit and acidity layer with ripe tannins. One for enjoying a little earlier, but delicious nonetheless. Drink from 2019+.
Katherine Dart MW, Wine Buyer

Roberto’s second vintage making Barbaresco from this celebrated cru. If sand is what characterises Paolin, and grey, marne clay Rabajà, then limestone is what surely distinguishes Asili. (Indeed, Asili could be said to possess the agility of Paolin with the complexity of Rabajà.) Whatever the similarities, it’s clearly beautifully balanced – the limestone element giving us masses of small, red fruit that have soaked up the hot August sun, rendering them tamarind like, decadent even, and complemented by new Stockinger oak botte. 

Lustrous mid ruby. Quite intense nose of red fruit and oak and perfectly integrated. Still quite closed and backward on the palate with bags of powdery tannins. Powerful structure on the finish. Very long and balanced, yet undeniably oaky for the moment.
Walter Speller - jancisrobinson.com, Oct 2016

Round, supple and succulent, the 2011 Costa Russi is laced with dark red cherry, plum, mocha, cloves and new leather. The classic Costa Russi personality comes through in a soft, gracious wine with tons of near and medium-term appeal. The Costa Russi captures an attractive middle ground between the ripe, pliant style of the year and the medium bodied grace of Nebbiolo. I expect the 2011 will offer a long and broad drinking window of pure pleasure. Although Costa Russi is often the most precocious of Gaja's single-vineyard wines, it is the last site to be picked.
Antonio Galloni, Vinous, October 2014

Just mid ruby with orange tinges. A little more fruit driven than the straight Barbaresco. Cherry and raspberry with a cool edge to it and the merest suggestion of oak. Beautiful, supple, mid-weight palate of red fruit, and complemented with quite demanding tannins, at least for the moment. Precise.
Walter Speller - jancisrobinson.com, Oct 2016

The structure and ageing potential of this wine is evident from the outset. There is an opulence to the texture, but the richly-scented fruit core is poised and finely-balanced. Generosity and elegance, tone and concentration. A perfect storm. Drink from 2020+
Katherine Dart MW, Wine Buyer

At only 1.83 hectares, the Roagna family's plot of Pajé still represents nearly 50 percent of the entire surface of this fine Barbaresco vineyard. Close to the Tanaro river flowing by, refreshing the vines with cooling air currents, the chalky character of Pajé’s soil is expressed through its soft, red colour, a dreamy nose of peachy, red fruit, of charmingly pure, effortless, firm but fine fruit tannins, and an enchanting scent throughout.

The father and son team of Alfredo and Luca Roagna are celebrating the completion of their new cantina in Castiglione Falletto, in the heart of La Pira vineyard, a prime location they’ve owned since 1989, but had bought fruit from since the 1950s. Both in their Barolo and Barbaresco estates (15 hectares in total), they pride themselves on their organic, grassed-over vineyards. They’re fortunate to have a wealth of oldvine fruit at their disposal which, of course, they vinify traditionally with extended maceration in large oak barrels.

The ground was hotter in 2010, built up over the long season (as compared to the freshness of 2011), combining to give richer, more balsam notes. A longer, 35-day maceration, without the use of pressed juice, gave a sumptuously suave, free-flowing Barbaresco from the highest, Campo Quadro part of the San Cristoforo vineyard in Neive. There is a distinct distilled tea-tree, rosehip, clove and black-tea core to this gorgeous wine. It's got beautiful lines, very svelte with mocha or coffee bean, along with redcurrant skins.

Destined to be an engineer thanks to a family construction business, Marina rebelled and headed to the vineyards on the family’s 17-hectare estate overlooking Neive, following in the footsteps of her grandmother. Trained in viticulture, she turned the property organic in 1982 (certified in 1993). All the vineyards are grassed over, with the fruit being vinified traditionally in both cement and stainless steel, before being aged in a combination of used French tonneaux and Slavonian botti. She has three Barbaresco vineyards: Basarin, San Cristoforo and San Cristoforo Campo Quadro.

This is made with 55-year-old vine fruit from an exquisite site, right in the heart of a natural amphitheatre close to the village of Barbaresco itself, the soil rich in chalk. Blood-red colour, the nose seduces, as always, with gorgeous, sweet raspberry, kirsch cassis, a hedonistic, velvety texture – held tight with sinewy structure. The palate swells with sumptuous fruit, yet it is chalky and pure, sensational, with such detail – brimming with superlatives.

The father and son team of Alfredo and Luca Roagna are celebrating the completion of their new cantina in Castiglione Falletto, in the heart of La Pira vineyard, a prime location they’ve owned since 1989, but had bought fruit from since the 1950s. Both in their Barolo and Barbaresco estates (15 hectares in total), they pride themselves on their organic, grassed-over vineyards. They’re fortunate to have a wealth of oldvine fruit at their disposal which, of course, they vinify traditionally with extended maceration in large oak barrels.

The estate's most prized wine comes from a perfectly situated 0.52-hectare corner of the Pajé vineyard in the village of Barbaresco, whose old-vine fruit somehow conjures a wine of unbelievable beauty – especially with the superlative 2006 vintage behind it. In a word, sensational; this has cool raspberry and mulberry, the fruit's natural expression undimmed by eight years’ élévage. It seems to possess the same profound, deeprooted complexity enjoyed by the likes of Monfortino; yet it's more porcelain, more delicate and ethereal given its Barbaresco (and Roagna) DNA. Rose-water pure, with such harmony and purity, this is ‘drop-dead' gorgeous.

The father and son team of Alfredo and Luca Roagna are celebrating the completion of their new cantina in Castiglione Falletto, in the heart of La Pira vineyard, a prime location they’ve owned since 1989, but had bought fruit from since the 1950s. Both in their Barolo and Barbaresco estates (15 hectares in total), they pride themselves on their organic, grassed-over vineyards. They’re fortunate to have a wealth of oldvine fruit at their disposal which, of course, they vinify traditionally with extended maceration in large oak barrels.

From the heavy marne soils overlooking the Tanaro river below, Rabajà is one of Barbaresco's top vineyards, a Grand Cru in all but name. The Minuto family have a couple of parcels, both facing south-west, so catching the afternoon warmth. Thank goodness then in 2011 for the refreshing, air-conditioning breezes that spiralled up from the river, fanning the fruit. Bottled in August 2014, from vines with an average 35 years in age, the colour alone conjures up rich, red sunsets. A bigger presence than the more delicate Asili, Rabajà is emphatic, still brooding in youth but promising much in the years to come. Cool feet, swollen summer fruit, it's a wine with more structure, so should age well.

One of the oldest, and finest Barbaresco estates, Cascina Luisin is located close to the village itself, overlooking its prime vineyard of Rabajà. Son Roberto is gradually filling the shoes of his father Luigi Minuto: there has been a renovation of the large oak botti, with Austrian Stockinger oak, along with a new family reserves cellar for all those magnificent old bottles. Alongside the pretty Barbaresco Paolin and more structured Rabajà, this year we are offering the first release of their old-vine Asili.

Only about 1,500 bottles were made from Roagna's south-west-facing plot that adjoins that of Bruno Giacosa. The sandy talc element of the calcareous soil gives an intriguing clementine-skin character, along with rose-petal purity. Crunchy-cool poise, packed with harmonious detail, a glint of kirsch cassis and red cherry-stone, impeccably dressed; it sets the pulse racing.

The father and son team of Alfredo and Luca Roagna are celebrating the completion of their new cantina in Castiglione Falletto, in the heart of La Pira vineyard, a prime location they’ve owned since 1989, but had bought fruit from since the 1950s. Both in their Barolo and Barbaresco estates (15 hectares in total), they pride themselves on their organic, grassed-over vineyards. They’re fortunate to have a wealth of oldvine fruit at their disposal which, of course, they vinify traditionally with extended maceration in large oak barrels.

Also produced in tiny quantities, as all Roagna old-vine wines naturally are, the Pajé version remains true to the bright, cherry-red intensity of the denominazione (versus the paler colour for Barolo): it's open-hearted, engaging with joyful tea-leaf freshness, fabulous tension, fleet of foot, with ballerina poise and balance – a pearl of sweet red cassis.

The father and son team of Alfredo and Luca Roagna are celebrating the completion of their new cantina in Castiglione Falletto, in the heart of La Pira vineyard, a prime location they’ve owned since 1989, but had bought fruit from since the 1950s. Both in their Barolo and Barbaresco estates (15 hectares in total), they pride themselves on their organic, grassed-over vineyards. They’re fortunate to have a wealth of oldvine fruit at their disposal which, of course, they vinify traditionally with extended maceration in large oak barrels.

It is fascinating to see how site and soil composure can play such a role is determining the fruit character and quality of the final wine. Roagna’s 0.22 hectare plot in Asili sits high up on a well-ventilated, sand and limestone site overlooking the river Tanaro below, which combines to give us a beautifully fine, scented, spicy red fruit nose, all prim and pretty, with prefect poise. Harvested on the 10th October 2009, it’s packed with intricately detailed groseille (red currant) essence fruit and pulsates with exciting energy. Very fine.
David Berry Green

Luca Roagna has captured the pure essence of one of Barbaresco’s aristocratic vineyards. This is the Musigny of Barbaresco, with the 50-plus year old vines producing a wine with an ethereal cherry and raspberry-infused nose. The wine has a powerful grace to it, with a sense of the sweet red fruit mid-palate before layers of black tea, crushed herbs, hints of mint and sandalwood add complexity. A star and a wine that will drink for 20 or 30 years should you choose.
Matthew Tipping - Private Account Manager

Very different in character to Marina’s Basarin Barbaresco, her San Cristoforo, Campo Quadro, to give it’s full name, reflects the vineyard’s cool, breezy position high up above the cantina, with a pale red, more perfumed, slight, hay, tiny red berry, and sandalwood aromas, even in the hotter 2009 vintage. It’s much racier than Basarin, more ethereal, more ‘Volnay’ (to Basarin’s ‘Beaune’); the longer, later hang-time conferring more complexity and ultimately more ageing potential. A very graceful wine with only 400 cases made.
David Berry Green

New to our list last year, Punset has become a firm staff favourite virtually overnight. With great energy of fruit on the nose, it has a lifted aroma with more rose than tar and loads of ripe red fruit. Lovely and cool, yet mouth-filling on the palate, the wine has fleshy, dense red fruit balanced by ripe, rounded tannins. This is the essence of Barbaresco. It will need a few years in the cellar, but will be a real treat when it’s mature.
Chris Pollington - Private Account Manager

We love the way Marina’s wines stay true to their provenance and vintage, clearly highlighting the differences and making them a delight to drink. The 2011 Campo Quadro is a case in point: the baked camphor, potpourri, dates and dried herbal notes recall the hot, dry 2011 vintage perfectly.

Yet the San Cristoforo Campo Quadro vineyard has kept its head, being that much more elevated, revealing a juicy, strawberry core of “sweet” red fruit, freshness and a slightly lower alcohol level than one might expect. This is aged in tonneaux and barriques, none new.
Drink 2016-2026.

Deeper in colour than the lighter, more accessible Pajé, the Vecchie Viti is a wine from 70-plus-year-old vines which you feel you could dive into. It’s got wonderful pace as well as richer fruit; the generosity of Nebbiolo fruit is balanced by salty minerality and underpinned by fabulous terroir. Wow. This needs time to unfurl.

Roagna’s tiny plot was acquired in 1971, with Luca releasing it properly from 2004. It’s one of Barbaresco’s most celebrated expressions, from calcareous, sand and silty soils on a well-ventilated hillock, south-west facing, not far from the Tanaro river. Pale, bright and red-rose in colour, the nose thrills with a mass of tiny red berries, raspberry ripple, wild strawberry and white stone notes. It’s juicy, possessing natural balance, backed by limestone tannins, driven by great energy and pace. This needs a few years to reveal all, but is such an exciting prospect.

Despite being from the same Barbaresco village as Roagna’s Asili, the Montefico could not be more different. Where Asili brims with wild strawberries and dainty red fruit, Montefico is squarer and more masculine, with a darker colour and bigger muscles. It has great presence on the nose, which is velvety and mulberry in character. From an exquisite, old-vine triangle, mid-slope and full-south facing, Montefico is built on white tufo rock, giving tannic power and plenty of sweet fruit. A sleeping giant.