The Story
Seventeen years of cellar time and the wine is just hitting its stride. Giuseppe Cortese has farmed in Rabajà — Barbaresco's most aristocratic cru, alongside Asili and Martinenga — for generations, and the family approach is unwaveringly traditional: south-facing calcareous-marl, vines pushing seventy years old, extended élevage in large neutral Slavonian casks. The 2008 vintage was a classical, structured Piedmont year, and time has done what time does to honest Nebbiolo. The fruit has settled into tertiary territory — dried roses, leather, tobacco leaf, tar — while the texture remains supple and the finish carries that menthol-licorice signature Rabajà is famous for. A mature traditional Barbaresco drinking at peak, with another decade of life if you have the patience.
Description
Seventeen years of cellar time and the wine is just hitting its stride. Giuseppe Cortese has farmed in Rabajà — Barbaresco's most aristocratic cru, alongside Asili and Martinenga — for generations, and the family approach is unwaveringly traditional: south-facing calcareous-marl, vines pushing seventy years old, extended élevage in large neutral Slavonian casks. The 2008 vintage was a classical, structured Piedmont year, and time has done what time does to honest Nebbiolo. The fruit has settled into tertiary territory — dried roses, leather, tobacco leaf, tar — while the texture remains supple and the finish carries that menthol-licorice signature Rabajà is famous for. A mature traditional Barbaresco drinking at peak, with another decade of life if you have the patience.
