2016 Barbaresco Cotta Vigna Brichet

Combining a fragrant, floral lift of rose petals and tulips with sour cherries and darker, more herbal components of thyme and sesame, this Barbaresco delights from the get-go on the nose. Fruit and tannins are compacted together in the full-bodied center palate, giving space for the sweeping acidity to test the edges and impart form and structure. This is all about finesse and beauty. Drink from 2022.

Fun fact: The accent mark on this vineyard's original name was what the Italians call an accento acuto (accent aigu, for francophiles), as in Cottá, an unusual diacritical mark to stick over an "a" in Italian. So the opposite-slanting and more common accento grave was printed on vineyard maps and wine labels starting in the 1990s, and with all the success it has had, Sottimano thinks the normalized punctuation might actually bring good luck. This is the trademark wine of this estate for its elegance, power and finesse. With an extra gear in terms of intensity, right off the bat the 2016 Barbaresco Cottá brings fullness and generosity. There are wonderful notes of mint and licorice to it, a streamlined wine with a great deal of purity. It's got a lot of volume and even more dimension. There is also that pretty salty mineral note on the close. Some 9,000 bottles were made.

Neive. Tasted blind. Concentrated ruby. Firm, youthful yet multi-layered on the nose. Generous fruit with full spread on the palate with fantastic, muscular but finely built tannins. Very long and with a firm grip. Truly tasty, long tannins. (WS)