Winemaker Notes
Sodale is deep red in color with purplish hues. On the nose aromatic notes of red fruit and sweet spices are in perfect harmony with woody vanilla notes. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, harmonious and pleasant with a lenghty balanced finish with polished, sweet tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is an excellent value buy. The Famiglia Cotarella 2022 Merlot Sodale Cotarella draws its fruit from Lazio near the village of Montefiascone with higher elevations and volcanic soils. This is a cool-climate expression of the grape, and you taste purple and blue fruits, pretty sweetness and tart flavors. The wine goes into oak for seven months, with second-use barrels handed down from the Montiano program. That volcanic signature is definitely present here with etched mineral notes. Riccardo Cotarella tells me that the Montiano site always delivers concentrated fruit and a strong sense of place.
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James Suckling
A refined and creamy merlot with blackberries, dark chocolate and light graphite. It’s medium-bodied and balanced, with a lovely texture and a juicy and delicious finish. Beautiful now. Drink or hold.
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Vinous
Darkly floral, the 2022 Merlot Sodale opens with a daunting dark bouquet of dried violets, lavender, traces of stone dust and crushed blackberries. This splashes across the palate, silky and lifted, with ripe blueberries underscored by tactile mineral tones. The Sodale finishes perfumed and extended with a coating of fine-grained tannins and a staining of primary concentration that resonates.
For the Famiglia Cotarella, wine is the element that flows through three generations and unites the past, present and future. Beginning with a historical focus on the indigenous white varieties found in Umbria and Lazio, this family-owned portfolio has grown to represent classic red and white blends, outstanding expressions of Merlot and a boutique production of Brunello di Montalcino – all grown and vinified with care by the 3rd generation. In 2017, Dominga, Marta and Enrica, daughters of Riccardo and Renzo Cotarella, officially took over management of Cotarella family Estates. Their aim was to tie the company's identity to its native terroir and the family name – rebranding the estate's historic 'Falesco' name to "Famiglia Cotarella”.
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.