Currá Barbaresco DOCG 2021

The Currá Barbaresco DOCG 2021 is a single-varietal Nebbiolo from a small cru near Neive, built taut, rich in extract and designed for long bottle ageing. Depth and seriousness define it, and even in its youth it comes across as a powerhouse.

The Currà vineyard lies southwest of Neive, on calcareous, clay-rich soil with a southwest exposure. Here stand 55- to 70-year-old vines with low yields. Rino Sottimano, who acquired the estate in Cottà in the late 1960s, planted most of the winery's vineyards himself in the 1970s and '80s. Today Andrea, Elena and Claudia Sottimano run the nearly twenty hectares.

Nebbiolo, selectively hand-harvested, spontaneously fermented with wild yeasts from vineyard and cellar. Maceration on the skins extends up to sixty days, and malolactic fermentation takes place in barrel once the cellar warms naturally in spring. This is followed by 24 to 30 months in used Burgundian pièces with 15 percent new oak. The wine is bottled without filtration or fining.

Powerful and dense on entry. The tannin is firm and so gripping that the wine is almost chewable; the ruby-tinged fruit sits tightly within this structure, meaty and austere, with a highly refined bitter note. The ripe, bright acidity lends drive. On the nose, dark cherry in many shades, mulberry and blackberry, along with bitter chocolate, dark tobacco, leather, black cardamom and allspice. At its best from three to five years of bottle age; young, it needs large glasses.

Sottimano has farmed the vines organically for over forty years, without herbicides or synthetic fertilisers. The grass between the rows is mown two to three times a year, and every second row is ploughed in autumn. Currà is one of five single vineyards from which the winery bottles Barbaresco.