Currá, Barbaresco DOCG 2020

Currà is the vineyard that, for Sottimano, stands for extraction and longevity, and the 2020 vintage shows it: dense texture, tightly knit tannin, quiet power without loudness. A wine that has already spent time in the cellar and can take plenty more.

Azienda Agricola Sottimano is based in the Cottà site in Neive, where Rino Sottimano acquired the estate in the late 1960s; today Andrea, Elena and Claudia run the winery, which farms nearly twenty hectares of Nebbiolo. Most of the plots were planted by Rino himself in the 1970s and 80s, and the vines for the Currà are 55 to 70 years old. The estate has been farmed without herbicides or synthetic fertilisers for over forty years: the grass between the rows is mown two to three times a year, and every other row is ploughed in autumn.

Pure Nebbiolo, spontaneously fermented with wild yeasts from the vineyard and cellar. The must remains on the skins for up to sixty days. Malolactic fermentation begins only once the cellar warms up naturally in spring, and can sometimes stretch into autumn. This is followed by 24 to 30 months in used Burgundian pièces with only fifteen percent new oak. The wine is bottled without fining or filtration.

Deep garnet red in the glass, with red forest berries, floral nuances and a fine spice from the oak on the nose. The body is dense and layered, the tannin present and finely woven, the finish dry and long. 14.0 % vol.

With braised beef roast, beef braised in Barolo, venison goulash, or aged Parmigiano Reggiano.

Old vines, organic farming for over forty years, very long maceration on the skins, and an ageing regime that keeps the oak in the background. One of the estate's five single-vineyard bottlings.