Product information

Giuseppe Cortese Barbaresco Rabajà Riserva McKENIZIE 5L 2016

Nebbiolo from Piedmont, Italy, Barbaresco

$3,170

Closure: Cork
🍇RABAJÀ RABAJÀ RABAJÀ 🇮🇹

Description

The 2016 Rabajà Riserva has that spark taking it from good to great. Engaging from the outset, take your time, enjoy this over hours even days in its youth.

Cortese have always marched to their own tune, making grape first wines that have a finesse and sophistication about them. Balancing freshness and energy with development. They often appear a little out of sorts when young, particularly at the entry level. Those with patience are rewarded as they shape themselves into complete, complex and divine creatures. The baseline consistency no matter the vintage is impressive.

The 2016 Rabajà Riserva is without doubt the best wine I’ve had from Cortese. Galloni’s descriptors below are on the money. The extra layers of depth for both flavour and impressive tannins, combine with a fresh acidity offering an elegant, complete shape and flow. The florals and fruits balanced by savoury, earthy complexity. It has plenty more to come over the next decade or two.

Grand Cru Burgundy lovers your savior is right here in Giuseppe Cortese’s Barbaresco Rabajà Riserva!

“The 2016 Barbaresco Riserva Rabajà is stellar. Just starting to open aromatically, the 2016 is superb in this tasting. Sweet macerated cherry, spice, new leather, tobacco and dried herbs all grace the 2016 with notable aromatic complexity. As always, the Riserva is an ethereal, engaging wine with less immediacy and mid-palate than the other Barbarescos here, but in exchange tons of nuance. This is the best showing yet for the 2016, a wine that satisfies both the hedonistic and intellectual senses.” Drink 2024-2041 Sept 2023

Antonio Galloni, Vinous 97 Points KO 99 🍷🍷🍷

Read Galloni’s reviews from 2022 and 2021 at the end of the page.

*Individual Hinged Wooden Box

Check out all of the wines by Giuseppe Cortese

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

You could call Giuseppe Cortese a one trick pony.

The majority of his Nebbiolo comes from just 1 vineyard

Boy, it’s one hell of a pony – Rabajà.

The winery’s signature wine; produced exclusively in the most classic vintages, it reaches the highest expression of the Nebbiolo variety, in terms of complexity and longevity, in the Rabajà vineyard.

This wine is a selection from a small part of Rabajà and is only made in the best, classic years. It has considerable structure, elegance and great capacity for evolution.

Grape variety: 100% nebbiolo

Surface area: in Barbaresco ,1 hectare in the “Rabajà” zone, with south, south-westerly exposure

Altitude: 235 / 315 meters a.s.l.

Soil: Limestone and clay soil rich in minerals and stratified with layers of “tufo”

Age of vineyard: around 70 years. Density of planting system: guyot-4,000 vines per hectare

Vinification: around 35 days of fermentation in stainless steel and old cement tanks

Ageing:40 months in Slavonian oak barrels ranging in size of 17 to 25 hectolitres and in age of 30/32 years. Minimum 3 years of maturing in the bottle before being released for sale.

 

“It’s impossible not to admire these genuine, sincere wines and their equally unpretentious prices”. Antonio Galloni

About Guiseppe Cortese

Giuseppe went solo in 1971, making his first wine under his own name.

Where in the World is Giuseppe Cortese?

Cortese’s best vineyard is undoubtedly his Rabajà

Contrary to how it may appear when seen from a distance, the Rabajà hill is anything but homogeneous and can be broadly divided into at least two areas. The first bordering on Asili coincides with the picturesque amphitheatre overlooking the Martinenga cru, and mostly enjoys a south-westerly aspect. The second, on the other hand, is more linear and faces due south, though within it there are some evident variations due to marked undulations around the hillside. In both cases, the style of the wine is, however, richer and bolder than the Asili and Martinenga (although a more uncompromising, mineral character tends to emerge in the second area).

Cortese’s Rabajà is mainly facing south-west in the hollow above Martinenga, south for the remainder

Click to enlarge 🔎
97 Points

"The 2016 Barbaresco Riserva Rabajà is stellar. Just starting to open aromatically, the 2016 is superb in this tasting. Sweet macerated cherry, spice, new leather, tobacco and dried herbs all grace the 2016 with notable aromatic complexity. As always, the Riserva is an ethereal, engaging wine with less immediacy and mid-palate than the other Barbarescos here, but in exchange tons of nuance. This is the best showing yet for the 2016, a wine that satisfies both the hedonistic and intellectual senses." Drink 2024-2041 Sept 2023

Antonio Galloni, Vinous

95+ Points

Cortese's 2016 Barbaresco Riserva Rabajà is a brooding, powerful wine. Even so, it retains a gorgeous sense of classicism in its transparent feel. Black cherry, plum, licorice, lavender and cloves lend striking nuance. Readers will find a dark, statuesque wine that shows the explosive power of the vintage. The Riserva emerges from the estate's oldest vines, which are about 60 years old now. Drink 2026-2038 Sept 2021

Antonio Galloni, Vinous

96 Points

The 2016 Barbaresco Riserva Rabajà is every bit as compelling as it was last year. If anything, it has shut down quite a bit, especially on the palate. Black cherry, incense, tobacco, licorice, spice and scorched earth bring out the darker side of Nebbiolo. Readers will have to be patient, though, as this brooding Barbaresco appears to be going through a closed phase. I wouldn't dream of touching a bottle anytime soon. Drink 2026-2036 Sept 2022

Antonio Galloni, Vinous

Where in the world does the magic happen?

Giuseppe Cortese, Strada Rabaja, Barbaresco, Piedmont, Province of Cuneo, Italy

Barbaresco
Piedmont
Italy

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