Cottá Barbaresco DOCG 2015

A translucent garnet red with a copper rim, the wine is clear and bright in the glass.

A good Barbaresco always starts out with the sceptical reserve of a sincere winemaker. It doesn't offer itself. He is not complaisant. He is sure of himself and first examines his counterpart before he opens up to him.

If there were such a thing as angular fruits they would be in here. Common cranberry, rosehip and sea buckthorn, as well as cranberry and cornelian cherry; like Lego bricks, all angular, but they fit together perfectly to make a whole. They are encased in spice from roasted mushrooms, pipe tobacco and a hint of bitter almond.

Sottimano's 2015 Barbaresco Cottá disguises none of its displeasure at being drunk so young, but with adequate air and a glass that offers it great surface area, it allows it to. Its tannins seem gruff at first, but they are in fact ripe and beyond snarling, as tame as a kitten. They give the wine's unreal light-footed body a firm backbone and concentrated power.

When this Nebbiolo has found its center in a few years, its truly stately size will really come into its own.