96 Monica Larner - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The Basarin vineyard was badly damaged by hail in April 2017, but we have this beautiful vintage to focus on instead. The Sottimano 2016 Barbaresco Basarin is a contained and elegant expression with sharp intensity and defined aromas. You get wild fruit, spice, balsam herb and crushed mineral, all pretty much in equal measure. The wine flexes its muscle, adding volume and weight with each swirl of the glass. It shows energy and fluid movements. Sottimano farms a three-hectare plot in Basarin, in Neive but near the border with Treiso, with 50- to 60-year-old vines. Some 5,000 bottles were made. There is a wholeness to this vintage that you don't get in 2017.