Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020 - 62

Top 100 Wineries

O LD WO R LD

Sottimano

Vietti

ITALY | PIEDMONT
The Sottimano family capitalized on a stellar 2016 growing
season to earn their ﬁrst W&S Top 100 appearance.

ITALY | PIEDMONT
Luca Currado's three Barolos from the warm 2015 vintage
demonstrate his mastery with nebbiolo.

RINO, ANNA,
ELENA & ANDREA
SOTTIMANO

RINO SOTTIMANO GRADUATED FROM OENOLOGY
SCHOOL at the end of the 1960s and bought a
few vineyard acres and a farmhouse in Barbaresco's Cottà cru. Sottimano's son Andrea joined
him in 1994, and his wife, Anna, and daughters
Elena and Claudia are also integral members of
the team. The family's holdings have grown to
almost 50 acres, all organically farmed (with certiﬁcation expected by 2021). Their vineyards lie
in Barbaresco's Neive and Treiso communes, and
the Sottimanos vinify all of their Barbarescos in
the same way, fermenting with ambient yeasts
with long macerations, aging the wines in French
oak barrels (just 15 percent new) coopered
especially for the Sottimano family by François
Frères in Burgundy, and bottling without ﬁning
or ﬁltering. It is fascinating to taste the terroir
differences expressed in their single-cru bottlings, especially in a long, even growing season
like 2016, yet the wines all share a purity of fruit
and underlying power that is characteristic of
the Sottimano style.-S.J.

ELENA PENA
CURRADOVIETTI & LUCA
CURRADO VIETTI

2016 Barbaresco Cottà ($83, 96 points)
This wine comes from a well-exposed, southwest-facing plot, the ﬁrst vineyard that Rino Sottimano bought
in the 1960s. The vines are now 40 to 60 years old,
planted in soils rich with limestone that yield a wine
with ample tannins and lively acidity. That taut structure frames the wine's vibrant ﬂavors, the notes of
sour cherry and plum laced with lavender, mint and
dark spices. It's tight and precise, with a long, energetic ﬁnish.

FOUNDED:

1969
OWNERS:

The Sottimano
family

2016 Barbaresco Fausoni ($83, 95 points)
From 45-year-old vines rooted in sandy clay soils in
the Fausoni cru, this is the most ﬂoral and approachable of Sottimano's 2016 Barbarescos. Scents of
mint, thyme and violet surge from the glass, previewing brisk ﬂavors of red cherry and orange peel woven
together by ﬁne, sandpapery tannins.

WINEMAKERS/
VITICULTURISTS:

Rino & Andrea
Sottimano
ACRES OWNED:

49.4
ANNUAL
PRODUCTION:

8,333 cases
ESTATE GROWN:

100%
IMPORTER:

Skurnik Wines &
Spirits, NY
62

2015 Barolo Lazzarito ($205, 96 points) Vietti's
ﬁve-acre plot in Lazzarito sits just below the top of
the hill, facing southwest and rooted in Serralunga's
heavy clay-limestone soils. Currado typically ages
his Barolos for 30 months in large oak casks, but
he uses some barriques for Lazzarito, lending hints
of toasted spice and tobacco to the lush blackberry
and cherry ﬂavors. With its velvety tannins, the wine
already feels layered and complex.

FOUNDED:

1873
OWNERS:

The Krause family
WINEMAKER/

2014 Barbaresco Currà ($108, 95 points) This
comes from an amphitheater-shaped plot of vines up
to 70 years old in Neive's Currà cru. Although just half
a mile from Cottà, with a similar southwest exposition, Currà's clay-andlimestone soils yield a formidably tannic wine, which the Sottimanos hold in bottle a
year longer than their other Barbarescos. The tannins
in the 2014 remain forceful, underlining the wine's
dark-cherry ﬂavors like cool, polished metal. As the
wine is exposed to air, it takes on a meaty aspect, layered with notes of cedar, spice and tobacco. Although
it's already complex, this wine will beneﬁt from
another ﬁve years of cellaring.

WINE & SPIRITS

BUYING GUIDE 2021

THE VIETTI WINERY IN THE HILLTOP town of Castiglione Falletto entered the modern era under
the leadership of Alfredo Currado, a vintner and
art connoisseur. He was one of the ﬁrst to bottle
a single-cru Barolo, the 1961 Rocche di Castiglione, and he pioneered the bottling of arneis,
one of Piedmont's white varieties, as a varietal
wine. His son, Luca Currado, grew up among the
vines and worked at wineries in California and
Bordeaux before returning to the family business. In 2016, Currado and his wife, Elena, made
the decision to sell Vietti to the Krause family
from Iowa, with the understanding that Currado would remain in control of the vinegrowing and winemaking decisions. Currado says
that the new arrangement has allowed Vietti to
acquire plots in several important crus, including Monvigliero in Verduno and Cerequio in La
Morra. He's also begun making two white wines
from timorasso, the ﬁrst of which was released
this year. Currado now has 30 harvests under his
belt, and he works with plots in 16 of Barolo's
top crus. The consistent quality across all of his
wines shows that his skills with nebbiolo extend
far beyond Castiglione Falletto. -S.J.

VITICULTURIST:

Luca Currado
Vietti
ACRES OWNED:

160.6

2015 Barolo Ravera ($205, 96 points) Novello's
Ravera cru sits on the western edge of the Barolo
zone and catches the brunt of the winds blowing
across the Cuneo valley from the Alps. Currado ﬁnds
that his Ravera vines often ripen up to two weeks
later than those in his other plots, and might even
struggle to ripen fully. This wasn't a problem in 2015:
The site yielded a rich and lively wine with ﬂavors of
black cherry and seeded raspberry laced with notes
of menthol, licorice and tobacco. Highly appealing for
its energy and complexity, the wine has formidable
tannins that call for patience.

ANNUAL
PRODUCTION:

33,334 cases
ESTATE GROWN:

N/A
IMPORTER:

Dalla Terra,
Napa, CA

2015 Barolo Rocche de Castiglione ($205, 95
points) From a plot planted in 1940, 1950 and 1968,
this is beautifully balanced Barolo, as fragrant as a
basket of fresh roses, red berries, violets and soft
herbs, those notes carrying into the wine's mouthwatering ﬂavors. The tannins feel cool and mineral, the
wine poised for long aging.

Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020

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