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Sottimano Barbaresco 'Cotta' 2021

Product information

Sottimano Barbaresco ‘Cotta’ 2021

Nebbiolo from Piedmont, Neive, Barbaresco

$180

$173ea in any 3+
$166ea in any 6+
Alc: 14%
Closure: Cork

Description

Brooding, there’s a richness counterpointed with transparency and a thirst-quenching acid tannin complex. Those tannins are nutty, layered long and even with a playful grip. Savoury with superb fruit. Darker, maraschino cherry with a chocolatey lick. Power with delicacy. Flowing and delicious. Serious and impressive.

Paul Kaan, Wine Decoded Feb 2025

The 2021 Barbaresco Cottá is quite the powerhouse. As usual, it is marked by a huge mid-palate of fruit, but more classic winemaking these days keeps that in check while also adding the notable structural dimension to balance things out. Black cherry, licorice, incense, graphite, tobacco and scorched earth all build in a virile, potent Barbaresco to treasure for the next two decades. This has come together beautifully since I tasted it last year. Sept 2024

Antonio Galloni, Vinous 96 Points

This wine comes from a 2.8-hectare vineyard purchased by Andrea Sottimano’s father in 1969. Today, the vines are 80 years old and planted in very wide spacing that once had vegetables and artichokes between the rows. The soils are sandy like in Rabajà and Asili. The 2021 Barbaresco Cottá was the last wine in our flight. That’s because it has the biggest concentration and richness. It offers a full bouquet with sweet berry fruits, dried herb and dark spice. It makes a big impact on the palate, and it shows an intense, long-lasting mouthfeel. All of these Sottimano wines are racked into oak sometime after January, and malolactic fermentation proceeds very slowly (finishing at the end of summer or closer to harvest). This gives the wine a reductive character. The aromas here are very delicate and fine with carob, forest fruit, orange rind and blue flower. The tannins are powdery and fine. This beautiful Nebbiolo drinks like a Pinot Noir.

Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate 97 Points

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Check out all of the wines by Sottimano

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Nebbiolo from 40 to 60-year-old vines in Neive planted to limestone and clay

Meticulous selection of the grapes is followed by spontaneous alcoholic fermentation. After maceration on skins and also a period of submerged cap, the wine is racked into wood where malolactic fermentation is completed. In order to reach its full expressive potential this wine rests in the bottle for about one more year.

About Sottimano

“I can’t say enough good things about the Sottimano family and the work they have done over the years to firmly establish themselves among Barbaresco’s top growers.”

Antonio Galloni

Az. Agr. Sottimano was founded in 1975 by Maggiore Sottimano. The cellar and a small holding in the Cotta vineyard were purchased first, then over the next 30 years Maggiore expanded the estate’s Nebbiolo holdings in some of Barbaresco’s most revered vineyards – Cotta, Pajore, Fausoni, Curra and in 2001 Basarin. Today, Maggiore’s son Andrea is the winemaker and uses his father’s 30+ years of experience to make decisions in the vineyard.

In the Vineyard

Sottimano farms 14 ha of the finest organic Vineyards in the Village of Neive in the Barbaresco area.

The vineyards are farmed organically with cover crops promoting bio-diversity. By doing less, Andrea is taking risks, but moving foward and exploring new ground in terms of transparent, natural wines. These are among the most terroir-driven wines in the Langhe and the future is extremely bright at this estate

“I always believe that every great wine is the result of a serious, conscientious and passionate work in the vineyards. That’s the reason why, since from the first day, I always tried to avoid any chemical products and herbicides , to preserve the natural balance of our soils”.

Rino

In the Winery

Andrea has a light hand in the cellar and may be Barbareco’s most forward-thinking producer. Macerations for Nebbiolo are around 18-40 days, malolactic fermentation occurs naturally without warming the cellars, in barrique, on the lees for up to 12 months with no sulfur. Fermentation happens with natural, ambient yeasts and the wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered.

The 2021 Vintage at Sottimano

My recent visit with Andrea Sottimano was one of the most interesting of my trip to Barbaresco in September 2024. The 2023s, which I tasted from cask, are gorgeous, promising, young Barbarescos. Sottimano gave his 2023s 40-45 days on the skins, as he felt the quality of the grapes and skins was very high. The 2022 vintage here is much more complicated. Sottimano did not bottle any Barbaresco, not even a blended appellation wine. “The wines were just too far off the level of the 2021s and 2023s and not really what we strive to make here,” Sottimano told me matter-of-factly. As for the 2021s, they are every bit as magnificent as they were last year. Cold nights in September and into October provided ideal conditions for richly expressive, structured wines. The 2021s saw extended time on the skins and were aged in cask, with no racking until bottling. These are some of the most impressive wines I have tasted in 25 years of visiting the estate.

Antonio Galloni, Vinous

Where in the World is Sottimano?

Sottimano is based in the Commune of Neive, Barbaresco, Piedmont.

Click to enlarge🔎

 

96 Points

The 2021 Barbaresco Cottá is quite the powerhouse. As usual, it is marked by a huge mid-palate of fruit, but more classic winemaking these days keeps that in check while also adding the notable structural dimension to balance things out. Black cherry, licorice, incense, graphite, tobacco and scorched earth all build in a virile, potent Barbaresco to treasure for the next two decades. This has come together beautifully since I tasted it last year.  Sept 2024

Antonio Galloni, Vinous

97 Points

This wine comes from a 2.8-hectare vineyard purchased by Andrea Sottimano's father in 1969. Today, the vines are 80 years old and planted in very wide spacing that once had vegetables and artichokes between the rows. The soils are sandy like in Rabajà and Asili. The 2021 Barbaresco Cottá was the last wine in our flight. That's because it has the biggest concentration and richness. It offers a full bouquet with sweet berry fruits, dried herb and dark spice. It makes a big impact on the palate, and it shows an intense, long-lasting mouthfeel. All of these Sottimano wines are racked into oak sometime after January, and malolactic fermentation proceeds very slowly (finishing at the end of summer or closer to harvest). This gives the wine a reductive character. The aromas here are very delicate and fine with carob, forest fruit, orange rind and blue flower. The tannins are powdery and fine. This beautiful Nebbiolo drinks like a Pinot Noir.

Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate

Where in the world does the magic happen?

Azienda Agricola Sottimano, Neive, Province of Cuneo, Italy

Neive
Barbaresco
Piedmont

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