2020 Barbaresco Fausoni Vigna del Salto

The 2020 Barbaresco Fausoni offers a lot of brightness and an especially linear style that can be traced to bright berry flavors and dusty mineral notes of crushed limestone. This wine gives us a good peek at the compelling nuance that can be coaxed forward with Nebbiolo aged in large oak casks, even in a hot and sunny growing season such as this. The wine concludes on a dry note. Some 5,000 bottles were made.

Neive. Concentrated mid ruby. Complex, spicy oak with leather hints over fragrant raspberry fruit. Juicy raspberry fruit of great purity and with the oak completely integrated. Long and elegant with plenty of chewy tannins and juicy, fragrant raspberry fruit on the finish. (WS)

The darkest-fruited of all the wines presented by Sottimano, the 2020 Barbaresco Fausoni is from 50-year-old vines grown at the lowest elevation of the estate (220 to 240 meters). The wine is generous with aromas of blackberry, lavender, and candied licorice. Full-bodied and ripe with ample tannins, it is expansive with red and black raspberry, tea leaf, and turned soil. It has wonderful depth without being heavy, with a seamless structure. It will benefit from another year in bottle before drinking over the coming 10-15 years. Sottimano is located in Barbaresco, with holdings in the five crus of Basarin, Curra, Fausoni, Cotta, and Pajore. The estate was founded in the late 1960s by Rino Sottimano and is today led by the entire family, Andrea, Elena, and Claudia. They do not used any herbicides or pesticides in the vineyard, and they only use minimal sulfur additions at bottling. Fermentation is carried out in wood, of which approximately 30% is new, and aging is in neutral barriques for 18-20 months.