2017 Elvio Cogno Barolo Bricco Pernice Organic, Piedmont

This is a medium-bodied Nebbiolo from a hot vintage with a ruby-tinged appearance. The 2017 Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice shows generous inner fiber and richness with dried cherry, blackberry, plum and dark spice. Fruit for this wine comes from a beautiful amphitheater of vines with the perched town of Novello high up on the skyline. I love the especially smooth and soft quality to what is a powerful and lasting wine. Only 3,500 bottles were made.

95 points Monica Larner robertparker.com Jun 2022 Drink 2024-2045

 Defying the heat of the scorching vintage, this fragrant red has aromas of iris, violet, wild berry, leather and eucalyptus. On the full-bodied, delicious palate, fresh acidity and firm, fine-grained tannins support dried cherry, nutmeg and licorice before a tobacco finish. Drink 2025–2032.

96 points Kerin O’Keefe wineenthusiast.com

Deep-set nose of bright, spicy cherry with layers of minerals, from chalk to river stones. Medium-to full-bodied with really nicely placed, still firm tannins and excellent spicy and mineral drive on the finish. There’s a cool feel to the palate. This is in the full bloom of youth and, though attractive now, will age nicely. Try from 2024.

94 points jamessuckling.com

2017 Elvio Cogno Barolo Bricco Pernice is one of the most powerful and deeply traditional expressions of Barolo, drawn from a historic hilltop vineyard in Novello that has long been regarded as one of the appellation’s great sites. Bricco Pernice sits at the very top of the Ravera ridge, exposed to cooling breezes and rooted in compact limestone and marl soils that give Nebbiolo its formidable structure, mineral tension and long aging potential. This elevated position produces Barolo of depth and authority, but also aromatic lift and freshness, qualities that define the best wines of Novello.

The Cogno family is inseparable from the history of Ravera and Novello. Elvio Cogno was one of Barolo’s great traditionalists, working for decades at Marcarini before founding his own estate in 1990. He championed long macerations, large format oak and extended aging at a time when modern techniques were gaining popularity, firmly believing that Nebbiolo needed time and patience to express its true character. Today the estate is run by his daughter Nadia Cogno and her husband Valter Fissore, who continue Elvio’s vision while refining the wines with greater precision and organic farming. Bricco Pernice is certified organic, farmed meticulously by hand, with low yields and a strong emphasis on soil health and biodiversity.

The 2017 vintage was warm and early, yet in this elevated site it retained balance and structure. In the glass the wine shows a deep garnet colour with ruby highlights. Aromas are intense and layered, revealing rose petal, sour cherry, red plum, licorice, tar, dried herbs and crushed stone. The palate is broad and commanding, delivering dense red fruit, savoury spice and a firm mineral core framed by powerful, fine grained tannins that demand time. Despite its strength, there is precision and clarity throughout, with freshness carrying the wine through a long, resonant finish.

This is a Barolo built for serious food and long cellaring, magnificent with braised beef, wild game, truffles and aged Parmigiano. It will evolve gracefully over twenty five years or more, developing leather, dried flowers, tobacco and earthy complexity as it matures. Elvio Cogno Barolo Bricco Pernice is a wine of conviction, history and place, offering a profoundly traditional interpretation of Barolo with remarkable depth and longevity.