From the Piedmont Files: A Special Offer

Elvio Cogno Barolo

2015 Ravera Bricco Pernice

Regular Price: $149.95 Vinopolis Price: $106.50

97 POINTS WINE ENTHUSIAST “Cellar Selection. Enticing scents of rose, iris, perfumed berry and an earthy whiff of truffle shape the fragrant nose on this dazzling wine. The delicious, full-bodied palate boasts structure and a weightless elegance, delivering juicy Marasca cherry, cherry compote, cinnamon and star anise. Taut polished tannins and fresh acidity provide balance and an elegant structure. It’s already irresistible but will also age well for years.

2017 Ravera Bricco Pernice

Regular Price: $159.95 Vinopolis Price: $144.50

95 POINTS WINE ADVOCATE “This is a medium-bodied Nebbiolo from a hot vintage with a ruby-tinged appearance. The 2017 Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice shows generous inner fiber and richness with dried cherry, blackberry, plum and dark spice. Fruit for this wine comes from a beautiful amphitheater of vines with the perched town of Novello high up on the skyline. I love the especially smooth and soft quality to what is a powerful and lasting wine. Only 3,500 bottles were made.

2017 Ravera

Regular Price: $119.95 Vinopolis Price: $109.00

97 POINTS JEB DUNNUCK “The 2017 Barolo Ravera makes a statement with its intense aromas of licorice, kirsch, pipe tobacco, and spice. Revealing a balanced and chiseled structure, the palate conveys dried raspberry, blood orange, and dried herbs. A great wine from the 2017 vintage, it feels like it will hold up to the test of time. Drink 2024-2042”

2018 Cascina Nuova

Regular Price: $79.95 Vinopolis Price: $60.00

94 POINTS WINE ENTHUSIAST “Floral aromas of rose and iris mingle with red berry and tilled earth on this perfumed red. Elegantly structured, the vibrant palate offers juicy red cherry, crushed raspberry and star anise before a savory, almost salty finish. Taut, refined tannins and bright acidity keep it balanced. Drink through 2030.”

Enjoy these additional savings on Elvio Cogno wines:

5% discount for order of 3-7 bottles

10% discount for order of 7 or more

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Discount ends Wednesday, August 19th at 9 am Pacific

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Cascina Nuova Barolo DOCG

Barolo Cascina Nuova proves that even the youngest vineyards can produce an excellent Barolo, albeit easily accessible, more immediate and of wide appeal. Created for a public that wants to get to know the wine gradually before moving onto more complex examples, it might even be defined as a benchmark among Barolo wines. This is a wine that manages to reflect all the character of a major terroir.

Ravera Barolo DOCG

Barolo Ravera is produced with grapes from the historical cru in Novello, a guarantee of fine aromas, savory flavor, and great complexity. The mainly calcareous soil of this old vineyards adds elegance and structure to the wine, making it ideal for ageing. Austere and severe in its early years, the Barolo Ravera does not lose its typicality with the passing of the years; on the contrary, it improves all the time. A unique testimonial for a prestigious terroir, a wine that takes the typicality of Langhe hills to the top in terms of quality.

Bricco Pernice Ravera Barolo DOCG

Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice, named after a small hill on which courting partridges build their nests, is the very latest wine from Cogno. The fruit of years and years of hard work, a desire that has come true. A project — a wine from a beautiful vineyard in Novello, in the most historic part of the Ravera cru, where the exceptional microclimate gives superb Barolo — dreamt of by Elvio and achieved by Valter and Nadia. A peculiar characteristic of Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice is its enveloping softness, capable at once of revealing all the allure and power of Ravera cru.

 

About the Cogno Winery

Words and images from Importer Wilson Daniels

The Cogno family has been making wine for four generations in Piedmont. In 1990, Elvio Cogno left a long and fruitful partnership with the venerable Barolo producer Marcarini at La Morra and bought a splendid, historic 18th century farmhouse on the top of Bricco Ravera, a hill near Novello in the Langhe area.

The farm was surrounded by 11 hectares of steeply sloped vineyards. Elvio restored the manor, converted the old granaries to wine cellars, and founded his eponymous winery. For the next 20 years, he devoted himself to the winemaking traditions handed down to him by his father and grandfather.

Elvio, in turn, has now passed the torch to his daughter, Nadia, and her husband, Valter Fissore, who has worked beside Elvio for 25 years. Following in the footsteps of Elvio the maestro, Cogno winery continues to produce elegant wines without altering the traditions, styles, and flavors of the Langhe, with its breathtaking quilted landscape and unique grape varieties.

The Cogno wines are known for their elegance, unmistakable terroir, and approachability with a traditional winemaking approach.

 

The Cogno winery sits at the top of Bricco Ravera, a hill near Novello in the Langhe area of Piedmont, one of the 11 communes in which Barolo is produced. Ravera is the finest cru of Novello, encircling the top of the hill and the winery, reaching 380 meters in elevation, with breathtaking views in all directions. Surrounded by 11 hectares of sloping vineyards, Cogno produces 11 estate wines.

The meticulously groomed vineyards are densely planted with 4,000 to 5,000 vines per hectare, vertically trellised and Guyot pruned, the rows are oriented to take maximum advantage of the sunlight while traversing the hillsides to prevent erosion. Grasses are grown between the rows to hold the rainfall and soil in place and to encourage healthy microbial life in the soil. Many of the vines are 30 years old, with the Ravera vineyard 60 to 80 years old and the Pre-Phylloxera vines more than 130 years old!

The climate is influenced by the Alps to the north and the Ligurian Sea to the south. The intersection of these two opposing geographic features results in morning fog and large diural temperature changes. Cogno receives up to one meter of snow in the winter, plus spring showers, which eliminate the need for irrigation.

 

Valter and Nadia take a very minimalistic approach to winemaking. Their philosophy is that terroir is the first and foremost determinant of a great wine. The less human manipulation, the more a wine’s true character is expressed — its personality, identity, and elegance.

Long macerations and slow fermentations with indigenous yeast at cool temperatures are used for the red wines, resulting in richer flavors and greater complexity.

Moving away from the French barriques that had become popular in Piedmont, their red wines are typically aged in the traditional large (used rather than new) Slavonian oak casks. This aging does not alter what Mother Nature has created — classic, fruit-driven wines that are balanced and elegant, with well-integrated tannins and remarkable longevity. These are wines that evoke a sense of place and purity.