Elvio Cogno Barolo Ravera “Bricco Pernice” 2016

Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice, named after a small hill on which courting partridges build their nests, is the very latest wine from Cogno. The fruit of years and years of hard work, a desire that has come true. A project — a wine from a beautiful vineyard in Novello, in the most historic part of the Ravera cru, where the exceptional microclimate gives superb Barolo. An expression of all the technical and stylistic precepts of the maestro himself, it fully deserves its place in the ‘Riserva di Elvio’. A peculiar characteristic of Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice is its enveloping softness, capable at once of revealing all the allure and potency of Ravera cru.

Made from the Lampia sub variety of Nebbiolo this wine is ruby to garnet red in colour. Intense notes of violet accompanied by a hint of damp soil, ripe red fruit and subtle spiciness. Harmonious and well-structured on the palate with incisive yet fine, soft tannins. Already elegant and alluring when young, its silkiness and, above all, its complexity allow it to age as only great wines know how.

“The 2016 Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice is a serious wine, and I mean that both in terms of its complex sophistication and its rather austere and brooding personality. The bouquet is redolent of dark fruit, wild plum and redcurrant, but there is plenty more at the back, with iron ore, crushed stone, camphor ash and licorice. Those sharply contoured lines could be from nowhere else but the classic 2016 vintage, and you recognize its many merits right off the bat. It offers ample depth, nuance and power. Only 5,000 bottles exist, unfortunately.” Drink 2024-2045

Monica Larner 2021, the Wine Advocate