Winemaker Notes
Intensely red in color with purple reflections, this wine contains aromas of red fruit and sweet spices that balance out vanilla wood notes. On the palate, the wine is round and harmonious with a persistent finish and sweet tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From a cool vintage, the Famiglia Cotarella 2021 Merlot Sodale Cotarella is balanced and focused with great intensity. The wine shines with dark fruit, cherry and blackberry. The mouthfeel is elegant and streamlined but not thin. You get chalky tannins and dark fruit in this well-balanced Merlot from Lazio in central Italy.
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Vinous
The 2021 Sodale, a varietal Lazio Merlot, is darkly alluring with an array of dusty violet, rose and wild blueberries. It's pleasantly sweet upon entry. Brisk acidity and tart wild berry fruits quickly add tension as hints of sour citrus and a savory herbal flourish amass toward the close. This finishes chewy and long, inviting the taster back to the glass with a bitter tinge that keeps the mouth watering.
With generous fruit and supple tannins, Merlot is made in a range of styles from everyday-drinking to world-renowned and age-worthy. Merlot is the dominant variety in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol, where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc to spectacular result. Merlot also frequently shines on its own, particularly in California’s Napa Valley. Somm Secret—As much as Miles derided the variety in the 2004 film, Sideways, his prized 1961 Château Cheval Blanc is actually a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
Known as the ancient homeland of the Latins, today there is a vigorus wine industry beyond the city limits of modern, bustling Rome. The Cesanese grape, full of red berry, spice and rose, is responsible for Lazio’s only true local reds. Lazio’s most famous white wine, called Frascati, is based on the local Malvasia del Lazio and Trebbiano Toscana. A sweet version, called Cannellino di Frascati, is also made.