Cascina delle Rose Cru Night
Wednesday, May 6th
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Cascina delle Rose, Barbaresco, Rio Sordo DOCG
2012 Rio Sordo
2016 Rio Sordo
2018 Rio Sordo
Cascina delle Rose is not well known. The winery is in the far reaches of Barbaresco (in the direction of Barolo), and produced their 1st Barbaresco in 1992. Today they produce 30,000 bottles (2500 cases) of Barbaresco, Dolcetto, and Barbera from 5.5 hectares above the Rio Sordo valley. Mostly they make Nebbiolo: 3 Barbaresco crus, Tre Stelle, Rio Sordo, Marcorino, and one nebbiolo langhe, along with dolcetto and barbera. The winery was founded by Giovanna Rizzioli, a true winemaking pioneer who taught herself how to make wine after purchasing the estate from her parents and moving to the property from Alba (3 miles away). She eschewed the then-regular viticultural practices and established an all-organic vineyard; the locals found her puzzling. Giovanna’s sons, Davide and Riccardo, assumed direction of the winery in 2017.
The winery is known for its elegant, aromatic, long-lived wines. They are beautiful and delicious, a wonderful expression of Barbaresco.
Rio Sordo was planted to Nebbiolo in 1958 - the Produttori dei Barbaresco has bottled a single-vineyard since 1978 - it is 100ft above sea level (for height, consider Bonny Doon) with a SW exposure.
Barbaresco Rio Sordo is hand harvested then gently destemmed and crushed. The alcoholic and malolactic fermentations take place in steel tanks. The maceration with the skins varies according to the vintage, generally around 30 – 35 days, with a submerged cap (no pump overs). Softly pressed to avoid rushing the seeds, then aged in large Slavonian (Garbellotto) and Swiss (Suppiger) oak barrels – not toasted – for about 20/22 months.
Bottling follows, always in the waning moon phase. No filtrations or clarifications are done. The wines are then aged 3 to 6 months before being labeled and released.
The winery bottles only 9 Jeroboams of each individual cru each vintage, In 750ML cases, the winery produces about 320 cases of each cru per year of 750ML cases.
We are very, very fortunate to be able to present and open these bottles.