Sottimano

The Long Patience of Nebbiolo

What sets Andrea Sottimano apart from many of his colleagues is his willingness to wait. While in most cellars maceration ends after two to three weeks, he lets his Nebbiolo spend up to sixty days on the skins. The wine takes what it needs – colour, tannin, structure. The subsequent malolactic fermentation doesn't happen in a heated tank, but when the cellar naturally warms up in spring. Sometimes it lasts well into autumn.

This slowness shapes the character of all Sottimano wines. The Currà Barbaresco, for instance, grown on vines between fifty-five and seventy years old, spends twenty-four to thirty months in used Burgundian pièces. Only fifteen percent new oak – just enough to provide structure without dominating the wine.

Five Hills, Five Characters

The five crus are scattered across the communes of Neive and Treiso. Each has its own temperament: Cottà, where the winery is based, produces the most fruit-driven wines with notes of red and black fruit. Fausoni is the softest, most floral. Currà shows extraction and longevity. Pajorè in Treiso brings Burgundian elegance with strict balance. And Basarin, whose grapes are sometimes declassified to Langhe Nebbiolo when the vintage demands it.

Rino Sottimano planted most of these vineyard sites himself in the 1970s and 80s. Today many of the vines are fifty to sixty years old – an asset that cannot be bought. In Neive, where Olek Bondonio also manages some of his parcels, there is a shared conviction that great Barbareschi come from old vines.

Organic from the Beginning

"I have always firmly believed in working hard in the vineyard to make great wines," says Rino. What is taken for granted today was a minority position in the 1970s: no herbicides, no synthetic fertilisers. The grass between the vine rows is mowed two to three times a year, in autumn every other row is ploughed. Certified organic management is not marketing, but lived practice for over forty years.

In the cellar, Andrea pursues this philosophy consistently. Spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts from vineyard and cellar. No filtration, no fining. The Basarin Barbaresco, for instance, reaches the glass exactly as it grew – with all its vibrancy and occasional unpredictability.

The New Finesse

Critics have noticed the shift. Where abundant new oak once defined the wines, terroir now dominates. A journalist from a major Italian wine guide put it this way: "Andrea is setting new standards. He will write his chapter in the history of Barbaresco." The Sottimanos take such praise in their stride – after all, they have plenty of time ahead. Forty days of maceration teach patience.