2013 Nada Giuseppe Barbaresco Casot DOCG Piedmont Italy 750 ml

One of My Life’s Great Pleasures

The 2013 Nada Barbaresco “Casot” DOCG takes a minimalist approach when creating this single-vineyard Barbaresco, that showcases the purity of Nebbiolo. With an incredible vintage like 2013, and at a $29.99 price point, a Barbaresco with this level of definition and intrinsic beauty, is a remarkable find.

This Cru Barbaresco is a ruby-crimson with terracotta hues. The nose leads with red currant, dried cherry, and rose petal, while it opens into vinous flavors of licorice, tan tobacco, rooibos, and dried herb. The structure is unabashedly Nebbiolo, and with just an hour of decanting, you are rewarded with a very finely chiseled tannin profile. The purity is remarkable, and it handsomely rewards just a little patience.

I discovered the Nada wines during my first trip to Alba Italy, when my good friend Shannon Staglin booked us a table at Enoclub restaurant in the heart of town. We had done our research and knew the wine list, food and Sommelier were going to be of a very high caliber. After asking the distinguished mid 50’s Sommelier for traditionally styled Barbaresco from a producer I have never had before, he brought us the 2010 Nada Casot Barbaresco, and we immediately fell in love with the wine! He spoke of personally knowing the Guiseppe Nada family and how he respected their philosophy of hand tending every vine on their 22 acres. He continued to speak about how everything in the winery is done by hand, while practicing longer fermentations, in large barrels. The wine was absolutely singing as I enjoyed my favorite Piedmontese dish, Vitello tonnato.

By contrast, in very broad terms, modern-leaning producers of Nebbiolo will facilitate faster fermentations, incorporate more air during fermentation, and use a higher proportion of new oak inside of smaller barrels (225 Liters). Shorter fermentations with more aeration can create a more fruit-forward style with less tannin. The smaller new-oak barrels may impart a woodsy flavor while allowing a larger surface area of oxygen to come into contact with the wine. All of these techniques have an intentional effect of softening the wine, making them more supple and perhaps rounder on the palate.

I do enjoy the modern versions of Nebbiolo very much; however, I find myself falling in love, time and time again, with the traditional-leaning expressions of Nebbiolo, like this 2013 Nada Casot.

I want you to share this love of Nebbiolo with me, so implore you to exercise a little patience with this wine. The wine is drinking beautifully right now, and will display a high degree of finesse and elegance with a little time in a decanter. Pull the cork, pour a half glass, and taste that glass every 20 minutes over the next hour. Pay attention to how the wine evolves in the glass, and how different it feels and smells from the wine resting in the decanter. The wine in your glass will have developed considerably faster aromatically, and on the palate, than the wine in the decanter. At this point, you will see the cause and effect of a large barrel vs. a small barrel, and how a larger volume of wine in a barrel, decanter or glass, can help retain the aromatic beauty and nuance of Nebbiolo.

The experience of tasting, smelling and feeling how a pristine, traditional Barbaresco evolve in the glass, has become one of my life’s great pleasures.

Sur Lucero MS