Cascina Delle Rose Barbaresco RIO SORDO DOCG (2022) - Piemonte

The deeper, earthier sister of Tre Stelle: older vines, more soil, more weight.

THE GRAPE
Nebbiolo from vines planted in 1958 in Rio Sordo, one of Barbaresco's historic crus. Here there is a full metre of topsoil over the limestone, and the grape responds with more flesh and a darker register than next door.

THE WINE
Same cellar, same big Slavonian casks, very different wine. Black cherry and plum rather than red, dried herbs, leather, a savoury, almost truffled note that gets stronger with age. 2022's warmth suits it — the old vines handled the dry summer and the wine is generous without being soft. Give it a decant now, or five to ten years in the dark.

FOOD PAIRING
Slow-cooked beef cheek, lamb shoulder with rosemary, wild boar ragù, or a hard, aged cheese. The bigger dishes of the Langhe.

THE WINEMAKER 
Cascina delle Rose is a small farmhouse sitting between two of Barbaresco's best crus, Tre Stelle and Rio Sordo. Giovanna Rizzolio started bottling her own wine here in 1992, at a time when women in the Langhe did not run wineries and almost nobody farmed organically. She did both. Today her sons Riccardo and Davide run it the same way: five and a half hectares, organic, native yeasts, big old casks and nothing clever. The wines are light on their feet and slow to reveal themselves

Forbes classified Cascina delle Rose as among the 25 best producers in Barbaresco READ IT HERE