Winemaker Notes
The 2023 Langhe Nebbiolo Montegrilli has a strong and gritty aroma. Even in this vintage, it features notes of fresh red fruit, especially fresh raspberry, and wild strawberry, with a hint of spice. This wine fully expresses its variety; with a taut and slender sip, it is direct and very fresh, characterized by extremely soft and integrated tannins that make it easy to drink.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Another brightly styled offering from Cogno, the 2023 Langhe Nebbiolo Montegrilli has a bright red hue and lifts with fragrant aromas of wild strawberries, white pepper, and fresh flowers. Medium-bodied, refreshing, crispy, and versatile, it’s a highly charming and lively wine to drink more immediately and even over the summer months with a light chill. It was also raised without the use of oak and included 30% whole clusters in stainless steel tanks, adding spicy lift to the wine’s character.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Elvio Cogno 2023 Langhe Nebbiolo Montegrilli has a fun bouquet, showing cooked pears with cloves embedded in the skin, Christmas spice, cinnamon and dark fruit. The aromas are quite intense, but the wine is lean and fresh in terms of mouthfeel. It stays in stainless steel for eight months.
The Cogno family has been making wine for four generations in Piedmont. In 1990, Elvio Cogno left a long and fruitful partnership with the venerable Barolo producer Marcarini at La Morra and bought a splendid, historic 18th-century farmhouse on the top of Bricco Ravera, a hill near Novello in the Langhe area. (Novello is one of the 11 communes in which Barolo is produced.) The farm was surrounded by 11 hectares (27.18 acres) of steeply sloped vineyards. Elvio restored the manor, converted the old granaries to wine cellars and founded his eponymous winery. For the next 20 years he devoted himself to the winemaking traditions handed down to him by his father and grandfather.
Elvio, in turn, has now passed the torch to his daughter, Nadia, and her husband, Valter Fissore, who has worked beside Elvio for 25 years. Following in the footsteps of Elvio the maestro, Elvio Cogno winery continues to produce elegant wines without altering the traditions, styles and flavors of the Langhe, with its breathtaking quilted landscape and unique grape varieties.
The Elvio Cogno winery sits at the top of Bricco Ravera, a hill near Novello in the Langhe area of Piedmont, one of the 11 communes in which Barolo is produced. Ravera is the finest cru of Novello, encircling the top of the hill and the winery, reaching a 380-meter (1,246-foot) elevation, with breathtaking views in all directions.
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.
Even to this day, the Roero folklore lives on about witchcraft lurking behind its dramatic contours and obscure woods—but these stories only add to the region’s allure and charm. Actually today Roero winemakers are some of the most astute and motivated in Piedmont. While the white Arneis has attracted global attention for some time, now Roero Nebbiolo wines (elevated to the same DOCG status as Barolo and Barbaresco) are making a name for themselves. Keep an eye on any labeled with the vineyard, Valmaggiore, as Barolo producers have been investing here for years. If you’re looking for hidden gems, this is your region!