Albino Rocca

 Back in Barbaresco, my final Piedmont post will cover the tasting at Albino Rocca.

 

Albino Rocca produces about 100,000 bottles in total per year. Vinification takes place in large Slavonian barrels. The maceration period is long, 30-60 days, to gain colour and tannin structure.

The 2021 Barbera Gepin is a fresh, medium-bodied wine. The mouthfeel is pleasant and elegant, with decent intensity. The soft tannin structure is significant for a Barbera (92 points). The 2022 Langhe Nebbiolo is from the Roero region, from a sandy vineyard. This is a perfumed and somewhat fruity wine from a warm vintage, but enough tannin structure comes through to make this an attractive wine (91 points).

The star of the tasting was the 2020 Albino Rocca Montersino Barbaresco. The vines were planted in 1997, and the wine made since 2012. This is quite an extreme site, with poor soil, 50% sand, on a steep slope at 400m altitude. As you can imagine, this is not a big wine, with a lighter colour, perfumed, and orange peel on the palate. This wine has great drive and is super elegant. Not for everyone, but I thought it was superb (96 points).

The 2020 Cottà from older vines is probably better known, and the red clay soils deliver  a bigger, fruitier wine, a bit like the 2020s from Cascina delle Rose. Still the wine is elegant. Production is low of these two Barbarescos: 2000-2500 bottles (91 points).

The main Barbaresco, with a volume of 8000-9000 bottles, is Ronchi. The 2020 is more powerful than Cottà, but it remains a soft wine, with a firm acidic backbone (92 points). We compared this with the 2019, which was better balanced, again, firm acidity, but a much longer finish (94 points).

The winemaking of Albino Rocca is impressive, with elegance of the wines being the common denominator.