Winemaker Notes
Unfiltered to preserve its richness, this remarkably elegant Barbaresco offers concentrated aromas of raspberries, roses, violets, leather and spice. Full-bodied with robust flavor and firm tannins.
This Barbaresco pairs well with roasted meat or wild game dishes.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
There's a purity of fruit to this young Barbaresco with loads of strawberry and rose-petal character. It's full-bodied, with ripe, silky tannins and very pretty berry and lemon-rind aftertaste. It needs at least three or four years to soften: better in 2017.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Cortese winemaking moxie really comes through in the gorgeous 2010 Barbaresco Rabaja. Notable elegance and finesse characterize the wine both in the mouth and on the nose. It shows harmony and clarity with defined nuances of dried berry, cassis, spice, dried mint and licorice that lift beautifully from the glass. The fine texture and polished mouthfeel are especially impressive.
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Wine Spectator
Bright, with cherry, strawberry and floral aromas and flavors, this is backed by a firm yet integrated underlying structure. Beautifully poised for development, so hands off for now. Juicy and long, delivering a lingering aftertaste of cherry, spice and mineral. Best from 2015 through 2027.
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Wine Enthusiast
From one of Barbaresco’s top estates, this single-vineyard bottling has intensely floral and balsamic fragrances and delicious cherry-berry and spice flavors. Its tannins are firm but elegant, and while still tightly wound, this will be drinking beautifully after 2015.
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.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.