Giuseppe Cortese Barbaresco Rabaja 2019

In their words -   Traditional version of the great Cru: a wine featuring structure, elegance and a personality of its own.

Barbaresco Rabajà is our most important wine and has an intense and ethereal perfume with fresh notes that evolve into scents of spices, tobacco and brushwood notes as it ages. A dry, full and robust flavour with a rich and harmonious structure; garnet red colour.

Critics thoughts -  Cellar Selection “Enticing scents of blue flower, crushed mint, berry and vineyard dust form the nose along with a whiff of new leather. The firmly structured, focused palate shows cherry marinated in spirits, black raspberry and licorice alongside a backbone of fine-grained tannins. It’s well-balanced, with vibrant acidity.”  96 points Wine Enthusiast 

The 2019 Barbaresco Rabajà is a powerful, austere wine that is going to need a number of years to come around. I very much like the energy, but readers should not plan on opening a bottle any time soon, as the 2019 is seriously tannic and shut down at the moment. It’s a gorgeous Barbaresco that shows the more elegant hand that defines the approach today.  94 points Antionio Galloni Vinous

Lustrous mid ruby. Concentrated yet noble red-fruit nose that is still a little youthful and with minty hints. Youthful raspberry palate with lots of acidity and long finely chiselled tannins. Still a little embryonic. A thoroughbred.  18 points Jancis Robinson

It is amazing the step up from the estate Barbaresco to this saintly Rabajà. The fruit here is tremendous, and it is steeped in gravitas, earthy power and depth of flavour that can only come from a handful of spots in this village. This is a top-flight wine from Cortese, and I cannot recommend it enough. Please be patient because the tannins are firm and need time to soften.  18+ points Matthew Jukes