The estate’s calling card, hewn of fruit from a cooler and drier section of the cru. The vines, between 60 and 70 years of age, are firmly established and thus, perform exceptionally well in warmer vintages. Always textbook. A wine for the erudite collector as much for the enthusiast. Darjeeling, strawberry, kirsch and lilac scents are tattooed across a tensile framework of mineral and leather-bound, almost chamois-like, tannins. Long and impeccably detailed. Powerful and yet, at once, virtually ethereal.
'the estate of Elvio Cogno has unequivocally thrust
itself into the pantheon of top Barolo makers.'
Ned Goodwin MW
Made by the estate that put this celebrated cru on the map, and showing an enviable combination of elegance and power, this stunning wine opens with aromas of wild berries, underbrush, dark spice and balsamic notes of cedar and new leather. The tense, savory palate is loaded with youthful energy, showing succulent Marasca cherry, raspberry, cinnamon and star anise framed in tightly knit, refined tannins and surprisingly bright acidity for the vintage. A mineral note suggesting iron adds depth to the close.
98 points, Wine Enthusiast (January 2021)
Novello. A 'blend' of two-thirds Lampia and one-third Michet. 'I did some vats with whole bunch [30% in total] see what the result would be.' Total skin-contact time of about 50 days.
Mid ruby with the beginning of orange tinges. Glorious nose of perfumed, intensely lifted cherry. Hints of black pepper and minerally stony notes. Compact, embryonic and concentrated fruit on the palate with bags of powdery tannins and succulent acidity. Great balance and length. Lots of potential.
17.5 points, JancisRobinson.com (November 2020)
The Ravera cru is seeing renewed energy and interest, thanks to the hard work of the Elvio Cogno team. They believed in Novello from the very beginning, and today a wine like the 2017 Barolo Ravera shows special confidence and pride. This pretty Barolo made with a blend of Nebbiolo clones (Lampia and Michet) reveals a slow succession of aromas with dark cherry and blackberry. The results are lasting, contoured and beautifully focused, thanks to mineral notes of rusty iron or brick. Nuanced notes of licorice and campfire ash round off the finish.
94 points, Wine Advocate (June 2021)
Cherry and candied strawberry with flowers and some dried earth. Full-bodied, layered and chewy. Lots of wet earth and mushroom to the red fruit. Tight now. Try after 2023.
94 points, JamesSuckling.com (March 2021)
Over the last several vintages the estate of Elvio Cogno has unequivocally thrust
itself into the pantheon of top Barolo makers. Following extensive experience at the Marcarini estate in la Morra, which Cogno co-founded with Giuseppe Marcarini, Cogno returned to his hometown of Novello in 1991, one of the Barolo zone’s eleven villages. Marcarini’s passing and the commercial approach of his grandchildren, the inheritors, left Cogno feeling rudderless. Cogno’s new mission was simple: to revive the most important estate in the town’s greatest–Ravera!
To say that Cogno succeeded is an understatement.
The estate is comprised of eleven hectares, producing 37,000 bottles annually. It is situated right in the middle of the Ravera cru, propitiously facing south-south-east at 380 metres above sea level. Friable calcareous chinks segue to prized solid limestone. Each Cogno wine hails from Ravera with vine age, parcel, soil structures and clonal makeups differentiating them. And what wines!
Cogno is as noteworthy for the eponymous Barolo Ravera as for the brisk Barolo Cascina Nuova, hewn of younger vine material. Yet it is often the Barolo Riserva Vigna Elena, crafted with the rare Nebbiolo sub-variety Rosé from a sandier plot, that blows minds! The Cogno estate is as daring as it is consistently excellent.
The estate is now run by Elvio’s daughter Nadia and son-in-law Valter Fissore. Fissore learned the ropes under Elvio, the master. Following a flirtation with modernity, Fissore has come to embrace a traditional gait incorporating a return to large Slavonian casks and ambient fermentations using the hallowed submerged cap technique, all in the presence of impeccably ripe fruit to facilitate noble tannins. Abstemious yields, attenuated macerations and minimal sulphur-dioxide as a means to encapsulate a culture of organic viticulture, while expressing the most prized plots of Ravera, are de rigeur.
