Hello! Welcome & Welcome Back!

It means so much to me that you took the time to subscribe to this wine club and, more importantly, chose to spend your hard-earned money with us. We are going back to Piedmont for this month's club release. It took a little bit for the wines to arrive from Italy, but these are two wines I picked out on my trip, exclusively for club members. You will be the only folks in the Mid-Atlantic with the Cortese. My friend Amber at the Wine Whisperer (check them out, if you are ever in Richmond!) grabbed a couple cases of the Barbera, but that's it!

My purpose in selecting these wines was two-fold. First, they are unique and absolutely delicious. The Cortese, grown in Barbaresco, is the only wine of its kind and, with the maturation in barrel, is totally an eat your heart out white Burgundy situation. I've been beating the drum for Barbera Superiore for a while. I find most everyday Barbera to be innocuous and forgettable. What it aims to do, be a food-friendly, fresh gulpable wine, Dolcetto simply just does better. Give it a little extra ripeness and maybe some time in barrel, and it becomes another thing entirely. Taste and see.

Second, I wanted to highlight the wines of Albino Rocca. They are an excellent, and thankfully, still under the radar Barbaresco producer who have been out of the Virginia market for a few years. The last vintage I remember tasting was 2014—though 2019 ended up in my cellar somehow. This historic estate traces its origins to a negotiant business established in the 1940's, which was refounded as Albino Rocca in the 1960's. Angelo Rocca took the estate to new heights beginning in the 1980's, but passed away suddenly in 2012. He was in the middle of returning Albino Rocca to more classically styled wines, after a period of pushing ripeness and oak. His family have continued those efforts.

If this were a younger and more fashionable estate, Albino Rocca would be a darling of all the trendy sommeliers, the sort of buzzy estate everyone talks about. But it is good for us that they are not in terms of the price of the wines. So, if you see these wines, buy them—especially, their current release Dolcetto, which is a certified "Glug, glug, glug!" wine from me. If you have the option of more than one Barbaresco, aim for the Ronchi cru. Their winery sits at the top of this vineyard and it is their most extensive holding.

The Gist on the Wines

Albino Rocca, Cortese, "La Rocca," Piemonte Cortese DOC (2024)

This wine is 100% Cortese, an Italian white grape variety most closely associated with south-east Piedmont, in the province of Alessandria, where it was first recorded in the early 17th century. No relatives have so far been identified. This unique wine is the only Cortese grown within the boundaries of Barbaresco, however. Angelo Rocca was a great fan of Burgundy. Rocca always believed in crafting a structured, food-friendly Cortese from low yields. His family has taken the wine to another level, weaving in complex mineral-savory hints, juicy texture and a nip of reductive freshness. The grapes are sourced from 1980s planting in the Ronchi Cru and a younger parcel in Meruzzano (San Rocco Seno d'Elvio) planted in 2014. The wine fermented in stainless steel, matured in French oak and aged on lees in barrel. Eat your heart out, Bourgogne Blanc.

Albino Rocca, Barbera, "Gepin," Barbera d’Alba Superiore (2023)

The name of this wine is taken from the previous farmer. Gepin tended these old parcels of Barbera in the great crus of Ronchi (Barbaresco) and Cottà (Neive), planted between 1950 and 1974. Where the classic Barbera is raised in tank, the Gepin matures for 12 months in low-impact, large Austrian casks and is bottled unfiltered.

This is a very classy Barbera, a ripe, pure and pulpy wonder with the kind of intensity and length seldom found in the regular DOC, where the best sites are often reserved for Nebbiolo. Plum, black cherry and raspberry fruit are framed by savory tannins, chalky grip and the tangy acidity typical of the variety. Textural and full-bodied, the balance is sublime. It finishes with impressive length and precision. Think you know Barbera? Think again. This is your Barbera for your steak.

The Details on Albino Rocca

It’s easy to forget that Nebbiolo, produced from great sites and mature vines can be a wickedly seductive wine to drink young. The late Angelo Rocca was a master at reminding us of this fact. When Angelo Rocca tragically passed away in 2012 in a light plane accident, Barbaresco lost one of its most distinguished growers. It also lost a wonderful person and a deeply respected member of the Piemontese community. Rocca was operating at the peak of his powers and producing the most exciting, terroir-intense wines of his career. His three daughters (Daniela, Monica and Paola) along with Angelo’s cellarmaster (and son-in-law) Carlo have been determined to continue this legacy and in recent years, they have not missed a beat.

These are deeply classical wines in one sense (large cask, natural ferments, savory tannins, etc.) and yet they are also wonderfully pure and precise. They nod to modernity in the best possible way. Of course, it helps that they have such wonderful holdings (Ronchi, Ovello, Cottà and Montersino), use only Estate grown grapes (20 hectares in total), and work meticulously in the vineyards with no herbicides, pesticides and only organic fertilizer—when it comes to Piemonte we have all been guilty of talking too much about winemaking and not enough about grape growing!

This producer has been through an incredible journey in recent years. The sudden passing of the family patriarch was obviously the catalyst. Angelo was already moving the estate back to a more classical style (having come full circle), and after his passing his three daughters decided to produce a wine in his honor. Speaking with their grandfather, Albino Rocca (Angelo’s father and founder of the estate), the idea came to them to make a wine that was vinified much in the way that Albino had done back in the day—using a wooden fermenter, with what we would call today ‘extended maceration’. The first release of the Angelo Barbaresco was such a success that it has now inspired evolution across all the wines (and two new wooden fermenters at the winery).

The Rocca’s efforts to continually improve the quality of all their estate’s wines have resulted in some superb offerings over the last few vintages. All the wines are aged in large, neutral botti and remain contemporary in the sense that they are ripe, pure and meticulously made, but instead of any distracting new oak character, you have that wonderful dark cherry, floral and savory structured personality of Nebbiolo in all its Piemontese glory. Not only are Albino Rocca wines outstanding examples of Barbaresco, but they are also very fairly priced.