Barbaresco

Smoky notes black cherry and graphite introduce a more brooding Barbaresco. The palate structure is incredible with taut tannins and vibrant acidity forming the foundation for the densely-packed fruit. A lesson in purity, balance and precision. 
Katherine Dart MW, Wine Buyer

Cherry tea, savoury herbs and a wave of chalky minerality on the nose leads onto an upfront palate, showcasing the depth and quality of this amazing site. Limestone soils give Asili more minerality and direction on the palate, supported by purity of fruit and light-footed intensity. Complex, poised and deep. Drink 2022-2040.
Davy Zyw, Wine Buyer

The complexity of this classic Barbaresco is the result of combining Nebbiolo from 14 estate-owned vineyards. A wine of infinite finesse, it displays the hallmark Barbaresco nose of forest fruits, plums, licorice, mineral notes, coffee and tar. Gaja Barbaresco is known for its dense structure, full-bodied and complex finish rich in silky tannins. Each Gaja Barbaresco is the expression of its vintage and has a long ageing potential.

From a cooler, hillside site to the southeast of the appellation with heavier clay and limestone soils. This expresses a cooler style of Nebbiolo, leaning towards a Pinot Noir flavour profile. It has a floral character with a gorgeous perfume of citrus notes and raspberries. Pure red berry sweetness with succulent, juicy acidity and racy tannins. Stunningly elegant, this is delicious and desirable now. Wonderful to drink or keep. Aged in 30% new oak. 
John Stimpfig - Decanter 25/09/18

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

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

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

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.

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A real triumph: this has elegant, cool, red fruit with notes of mint and coffee on the nose. It is sumptuous and mouth-filling, yet still retaining amazing elegance and coolness. Terrifically complex with notes of red summer fruits, grilled meats, smoke, chocolate and herbs among many others. The finish is long and fine. 

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

Planted in 1948, the old vine (Vecchie Viti) Barbaresco Pajé vineyard, close to the village of Barbaresco itself, shows a darker, broodier, much more savoury, structured earthy character (tasted just before bottling, in July 2014, along with the other 2009s). It’s very redeeming, with gorgeous polposo (pulpy) sage and almost brambly fruit. Such presence and complexity. Patience required.
David Berry Green

Roberto’s Rabajà recalls the damp and then hot vintage, while expressing its prime, “front row”, west-facing, deep, grey, marne-clay soils perfectly. A darker, almost ruby red, it’s very, cooly composed, noble even, on the nose, with dried roses, black truffle and clove notes. Broad, emphatic and square-shouldered with lots of juicy flesh on those heavy bones, ensuring Rabajà’s well covered for the years to come as it ages in bottle.

One of the oldest, and finest, Barbaresco estates, Cascina Luisin is located close to the village itself, overlooking its prime vineyard of Rabajà. 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 structured Rabajà, this year we are also offering the second release of their old-vine Asili.

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.

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.

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.

The 2011 Sorì San Lorenzo boasts massive depth, intensity and power. Black fruit, smoke, tar, licorice, savory herbs and leather are some of the many notes that emerge from the glass. Regardless of the year, the personality of Sorì San Lorenzo always comes through, which is why this is one of the great sites in Barbaresco, Piedmont and Italy. In 2011 the contours are a bit softer, which gives the wine a level of accessibility that is quite rare in Sorì San Lorenzos when the wines are young. Why is Sorì San Lorenzo one of the world's most profound vineyards? Because its personality simply can't be denied.
Antonio Galloni – Vinous – October 2014

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