Italian Icons: From Barbaresco to Bolgheri

Two hills, two grapes, two revolutions. The Italian wines that changed how the world sees Italy.

Forty years ago, few collectors outside Italy kept Italian wine in their cellars. Today, Barbaresco and Bolgheri sit beside Bordeaux and Burgundy on the world's great wine lists. A handful of families made that happen. This is their story, told through the bottles in our cellar.

Gaja: the family that reinvented Barbaresco

The Gaja family has made wine in the village of Barbaresco since 1859. In the 1960s, Angelo Gaja took over and changed almost everything: lower yields, single-vineyard thinking, and the conviction that Nebbiolo from Barbaresco could stand with the greatest wines of France. He travelled the world with his bottles until the world agreed.

Gaja's Barbaresco is a blend from the family's vineyards across the village. It has the classic Nebbiolo signature: pale garnet colour, roses, tar, red cherry and firm tannin, with a polish that is pure Gaja.

We hold five vintages, which makes a rare vertical:

• 2012 (€210): the most mature. Open, savoury, with dried rose and leather. Ready now.
• 2014 (€180): a cool year with a lighter, fragrant, elegant style. Lovely now.
• 2015 (€180): warm and generous, round fruit, approachable.
• 2016 (€185): a great Piedmont vintage, structured and complete. Keep it, or decant for three hours.
• 2017 (€150): a warm year, fleshy and ripe, the most immediately pleasurable of the young ones.

Sottimano: the grower's Barbaresco

In Neive, a few kilometres from Gaja, the Sottimano family makes Barbaresco from individual crus with a light, natural hand. Their wines are perfumed and transparent, and the prices are a fraction of the icons.

Cotta 2019 and 2020 (€52 and €54) are the easiest introduction. The Riserva 2013 (€228) shows how well these wines age. For a case, Fausoni 2020 and Currà 2016 come in sixes.

Sassicaia: the wine that started Bolgheri

On the Tuscan coast in the 1940s, Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta planted cabernet sauvignon at Tenuta San Guido, convinced that the gravelly soils of Bolgheri resembled Graves. For years the wine was for the family alone. When it was released in the 1970s, it changed Italian wine for good.

Today Sassicaia has its own appellation, Bolgheri Sassicaia, the only one in Italy reserved for a single estate. It is cabernet-led, fresh and finely built, more Bordeaux in spirit than Tuscan.

We hold 2017, 2018 and 2020 (€210–220). The 2018 is the most classical and elegant of the three; 2017 is riper; 2020 is youthful and precise. All will reward another five years in the cellar.

Masseto: Merlot on blue clay

A few kilometres away, a single hill of blue clay gives Masseto, a pure Merlot that has become one of the most sought-after wines in the world. Born within Tenuta dell'Ornellaia, it is now an estate in its own right, with its own winery cut into the hill.

Masseto is dense, velvety and deep: black cherry, cocoa, spice. We hold 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023 (€550–700), a rare run of five vintages. For a single bottle that shows what Masseto is, the 2019 (€620).

Barbaresco is about perfume. Bolgheri is about power held in balance. A great Italian cellar needs both.

From Montalcino

For Brunello, Salicutti is a small organic estate with a cult following. Piaggione 2015 (€80) is open and warm now; Teatro 2016 (€160) is a wine for the cellar.

Serving

Serve Barbaresco at 16–17°C and decant younger vintages for two to three hours. Truffles, risotto, braised beef and aged Parmigiano are classic. Serve Sassicaia and Masseto at 17–18°C with lamb, steak or game.

From our cellar

All these wines rest in our bonded cellar in Luxembourg. With your Digital Cellar you can always check your wines, wherever you are, and send for them when the evening calls for Italy.

FAQ

What grape is Barbaresco made from?

Nebbiolo.

What makes Sassicaia special?

It pioneered cabernet sauvignon in Bolgheri and has its own single-estate appellation.

When is Gaja Barbaresco ready to drink?

Usually from ten years after the vintage; lighter vintages earlier.