2021 Cogno, Barolo DOCG “Cascina Nuova” Piemonte, Italy.
The Cascina Nuova Barolo by Cogno is a gem of a young Nebbiolo and pure Barolo at heart with a dark ruby/garnet color in the glass and a classic mouthful of macerated cherry, damson plum, bramble berry and preserved orange fruits, as well as minty, salty licorice, crushed chalk, cedar wood, seeped rose petals and mountain herbs. Youthful, but charming already, this full bodied and tightly structured Barolo benefits from air and especially food with generous vinous dimension, some nice acidity and fine grained tannin that carries the finish a long time. Interestingly, Cogno says the Cascina Nuova is young vine Barolo, but the vineyards for Barolo Cascina Nuova, which are spread over a stretch of land facing the family farmhouse, with an average age of 22 years, so more mature than I would have guessed. The vines are set on calcarious Marl, with sandy soils at about 380 meters above sea level, with southern exposure, allowing for balance and full ripe fruit, which shows in this 2021 vintage. According to the winery, the 2021 vintage began with a mild winter and early bud break, supported by abundant rain and snow that helped sustain vines through a dry, but not overly hot, summer, which in my opinion led to ripe, but balanced wines that show exceptional purity, as seen in the ’21s at Cogno, which I tried recently at the San Francisco Slow Wine tour stop, and maybe not blockbusters, they have lovely potential and are worth putting in the cellar.
The Cogno winery says that the Barolo Cascina Nuova proves that even the youngest vineyards can produce an excellent Barolo, albeit easily accessible, more immediate and of wide appeal, which in this case with the 2021 certainly is true. It was created, they add, for a public that wants to get to know the winery and their wines gradually before moving onto more complex examples made here, like their outstanding and age worthy Ravera single cru Barolo, which is going to some time to evolve. The Cogno family, it is noted, has been making wine in the Langhe area of Piedmont for four generations. The winey pays tribute to the values, history and traditions that were handed down by Elvio to his heirs and are now enhanced by the freshness and innovation that has been introduced by his daughter Nadia and her husband Valter Fissore, who run this excellent property, who’s main focus is Nebbiolo and primarily Barolo. For the Barolo, the fermentation is done exclusively in stainless steel, 100% de-stemmed and temperature-controlled, it gets automatic pumping-over, with post-fermentation maceration lasting for 30 days with a submerged cap. The Barolo is then traditionally aged for 24 months in large Slavonian oak barrels, or Botti, and then rested for another 6 months in bottle. This has made the Cascina Nuova Barolo a transparent and cleanly styled wine that captures terroir and offers lots of depth and character for the price. I was impressed by the this latest set of Cogno wines and highly recommend them to Barolo fans, with this one being a good choice for near term drinking.
($56 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive