2021 Rocche Costamagna Langhe Nebbiolo, Piedmont

Notes of cherries and raspberries, sweet cardamom and chocolate nibs. Medium-bodied,ripe, but balanced and focused with velvety tannins and a flavorful finish. Drink now.

90 points jamessuckling.com Aug 2023

This splendid 8.5 hectare hillside estate is situated in the small town of Lessona, near Biella in northern Piemonte. It passed into the De Marchi family (of top Chianti Classico estate, Isole e Olena) through their relative, Felice Sperino, a passionate viticulturist and professor in Turin.

Since the 1970s, Paolo De Marchi has dreamed of revitalising the Sperino estate, a dream that has come to fruition with the help of his elder son, Luca, who now runs the estate and makes the wines with Paolo’s guidance.

The wines are consistently superb. They are very Burgundian in style, light in colour yet intense, scented and long. Their ‘Rosa del Rosa’ rosato is a lovely Nebbiolo rosé with a mineral and savoury character. The ‘Uvaggio’, a blend of Nebbiolo, Vespolina and Croatina, is supple yet grainy with a hint of roses on the finish. The Lessona is majestic. Made solely from Nebbiolo, it is intense yet velvety, thanks to the soil in this zone that yields softer tannins in the grapes than those found in Nebbiolo from the Langhe.