Sottimano’s 2017s are a mixed bag. It’s hard to see how they could have turned out differently in a year which saw devastating hail, then frost and unrelenting hot/dry weather all the way through harvest. Basarin, Fausoni and Currà were almost entirely wiped out. As a result, those wines weren’t bottled at all. Because of the extremely hot June, Sottimano decided to leave a bit more crop on the vine in order to avoid having overly concentrated wines. The 2017s spent 25 days on the skins and 18 months in oak with no racking. The 2016s are every bit as thrilling as they were last year, when I tasted them just after bottling. Benign conditions yielded a clean crop of exceptional quality. The 2016s saw a total of 40 days on the skins, followed by 18 months in barrel, with no racking.

From Barbaresco 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages (Nov 2019) by Antonio Galloni