Winemaker Notes
This wine is deep violet in color and shows a symphony of aromas including cranberry, black cherry, wild flowers and notes of licorice and menthol. The naturally soft tannins of Dolcetto make the wine approachable in its youth, but it will age gracefully due to the sap imparted by the old vines.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The organic 2019 Dolcetto d'Alba Coste & Fossati is plump and bright with raw cherry and sweet blueberry. This 8,000-bottle production is streamlined and fresh with all sorts of fun fruit flavors to keep your attention. To the palate, the wine is quite simple, but you still have the textural fiber to pair with fried chicken or breaded veal. There is a dusting of black pepper on the close. This is the second time in as many years that the Vajra family has resisted submerging the cap during winemaking for this wine, a tradition they had originally started in 1989.
An easy drinking red with soft fruity flavors—but catchy tannins, Dolcetto is often enjoyed in its native Piedmont on a casual weekday night, or for apertivo (the canonical Piedmontese pre-dinner appetizer hour). Somm Secret—In most of Piedmont, easy-ripening Dolcetto is relegated to the secondary sites—the best of which are reserved for the king variety: Nebbiolo. However, in the Dogliani zone it is the star of the show, and makes a more serious style of Dolcetto, many of which can improve with cellar time.
An historic village situated right in between the famous regions of Barolo and Barbaresco, Alba is also the name for the larger wine region surrounding the village.
In a sense, “Alba” is a catch-all phrase, and includes the declassified Nebbiolo wines made in Barolo and Barbaresco, as well as the Nebbiolo grown just outside of these regions’ borders. In fact, Nebbiolo d’Alba is a softer, less tannic and more fruit-forward wine ready to drink within just a couple years of bottling. It is a great place to start if you want to begin to understand the grape. Likewise, the even broader category of Langhe Nebbiolo offers approachable and value-driven options as well.
Barbera, planted alongside Nebbiolo in the surrounding hills, and referred to as Barbera d’Alba, takes on a more powerful and concentrated personality compared to its counterparts in Asti.
Dolcetto is ubiquitous here and, known as Dolcetto d'Alba, can be found casually served alongside antipasti on the tables of Alba’s cafes and wine bars.
Not surprisingly, given its location, Alba is recognized as one of Italy’s premiere culinary destinations and is the home of the fall truffle fair, which attracts visitors from worldwide every year.