Gaja - Barbaresco 'Costa Russi' 2016

If we were to name just one historic Barbaresco producer, it would of course be Angelo Gaja or Bruno Giacosa.

In the family domain, Angelo Gaja is actively supported by his wife Lucia, his daughters Gaia and Rossana and the famous and excellent oenologist Guido Rivella.

Costa means slope in Italian and is often used in the names of vineyard designated wines. In wine-growing parlance, it denotes the side of a hill that faces the sun. Russi was the nickname of the previous estate owner, who oversaw the vineyard management of this historic and privileged growing site. This 10-acre vineyard which lies in the township of Barbaresco was purchased in the winery's 1967 expansion of its vineyard holdings. GAJA's Costa Russi is known for the elegance and refinement of its aromatic character and likes its single-vineyard counterparts, will age gracefully for 40 years of more in outstanding vintages.

Of all the different vineyards, Costa Russi often offers the most refined and delicate bouquet.

"The 2016 Barbaresco Costa Russi is a more floral, sappy Barbaresco, offering textbook notes of black cherries, rose petals, sappy herbs, and violets. It's one of the more vibrant, juicy, and perfumed wines in the lineup and has medium to full body, bright yet integrated acidity, and the same incredibly polished yet certainly present tannins found in all these 2016s. This is another elegant 2016 that never puts a foot wrong." - 98 points, Jeb Dunnuck

"This delicate red features floral, strawberry, cherry, currant and loamy earth aromas and flavors, showing terrific balance. A line of firm tannins adds support, and the finish is long and expansive. Best from 2023 through 2045." - 97 points, Wine Spectator

"The 2016 Barbaresco Costa Russi is a very botanical wine in terms of its aromas, with lovely perfumes of rose, elderflower, sambuco and anise seed, along with a touch of glycerine. It then follows up with some sweetness that feels very embracing in this wine. This is the more ephemeral, delicate and floral member of the extended Barbaresco family from Gaja, with a crunchy tannic bite, but nothing too severe. There is a really good vitality and energy to this very expressive wine. Costa Russi remains the smallest of Gaja's single-vineyard wines, and Gaia Gaja warns that there will be considerably less of it starting with the 2017 vintage. Production for this wine had always varied greatly to begin with, due in part to the fragile nature of the 80-year-old vines, but about half of those were removed and replanted. It will be a while before the new vines are old enough to go online. So, with some 10,000 bottles made in 2016 and 6,000 bottles in 2015, we can count on those numbers to be split by half over the next three to four years, for sure." - 96 points, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Producer: Gaja

Country: Italy

Region: Piedmont

Varietal: Nebbiolo

Appellation: Barbaresco

Vintage: 2016

Size: 750ml