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Country: | Italy |
Regions: | Piemonte Barbaresco |
Winery: | Gaja |
Grape Type: | Nero d'Avola |
Vintage: | 2016 |
Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
Gaja Costa Russi Nebbiolo is made from 100 percent Nebbiolo.
Costa (Italian for the side of the hill facing the sun) Russi (the nickname of the former owner) is ruby red in color, with a captivating aroma of blackberries, violets and roasted coffee beans. The purity of the palate is layered with dark fruit flavors and complex tannins.
STYLE: Complex, Elegant
FLAVOR: Blackberry, Violet, Roasted Coffee Beans
Review:
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.
-Jeb Dunnuck 98+ Points
The 2016 Barbaresco Costa Russi is ripe, creamy and enveloping, as it so often is, and yet also preserves the super classic sense of structure that runs through all these wines. In 2016, Costa Russi has an extra touch of mid-palate sweetness that gives the wine its sense of immediacy. Succulent red cherry, rosewater, kirsch, mint and dried flowers meld together in the glass. Soft and sensual, with tons of allure, Costa Russi is another winner from Gaja. Time in the glass brings out the wine's density and tannins, both of which it has in spades.
- Antonio Galloni 98
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. 175 cases imported.
-Wine Spectator 97 Points
Located in Piedmont in northwestern Italy, the GAJA winery is widely considered to be one of the greatest estates in the world, producing coveted and collectible labels. From its classic Barbaresco and Barolo and its single-vineyard bottling, to its ground-breaking Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon, GAJA is a pioneer and guardian of tradition, a legacy that continues to reshape the standard for excellence in the world of winemaking today.
Gaja Sito Moresco Rosso Langhe is made from 35% Nebbiolo, 25% Merlot, 25% Barbera, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon
Sito Moresco is named for the family who farmed this 25-acre estate in Barbaresco before its purchase by the Gaja family, a nod to the people and traditions that preceded it. It means literally the Moresco site, after the family name of Giovannini Moresco. GAJA created this red blend to deliver greater approachability in its youth. Sito Moresco is made from vineyards located in the villages of Treiso and Barbaresco (in the Barbaresco appellation) and fruit from Serralunga d’Alba (in the Barolo appellation). Pheasants are featured on Sito Moresco's label to commemorate the beautiful birds that inhabit the forests adjacent to GAJA's vineyards. Concentration of fruit, structure and acidity are the highlights of the vintage.
Gaja Sito Moresco Rosso Langhe is made from 35% Nebbiolo, 25% Merlot, 25% Barbera, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon
Sito Moresco is named for the family who farmed this 25-acre estate in Barbaresco before its purchase by the Gaja family, a nod to the people and traditions that preceded it. It means literally the Moresco site, after the family name of Giovannini Moresco. GAJA created this red blend to deliver greater approachability in its youth. Sito Moresco is made from vineyards located in the villages of Treiso and Barbaresco (in the Barbaresco appellation) and fruit from Serralunga d’Alba (in the Barolo appellation). Pheasants are featured on Sito Moresco's label to commemorate the beautiful birds that inhabit the forests adjacent to GAJA's vineyards. Concentration of fruit, structure and acidity are the highlights of the vintage.
Gaja Barbaresco is made from 100 percent Nebbiolo.
The flagship of the Gaja family, this wine is produced from Nebbiolo grapes and named for its village of origin. Deep garnet in color, the aroma is complex and sensual with notes of forest fruit, plum, licorice, mineral and coffee. The texture is supple with fine, silky tannins and bright acidity leading to a long finish.
STYLE: Complex, Dense, Structured
FLAVOR: Forest Fruit, Plum, Licorice, Mineral, Coffee
After fermentation is complete, the separate lots are then aged for one year in barriques (20% new, with a balance in one and two year old casks). The 14 lots are then blended and racked to large Slavonian oak casks ranging in age from five to fifteen years.
Review:
Fragrant and loaded with extraordinary finesse, this radiant red offers intense aromas of rose, violet, perfumed berry and camphor. The savory palate boasts flavor, energy and almost ethereal elegance, featuring red cherry, raspberry compote and baking spice alongside taut, polished tannins. It closes on a note of star anise while vibrant acidity keeps it impeccably balanced. It’s already enjoyable but will also offer years of fine wining. Drink through 2033.
-Wine Enthusiast 98 Points
Gaja Ca'Marcanda 'Camarcanda' Bolgheri is made from 70% Cabernet Sauvignon & 30% Cabernet Franc .
Color : Deep garnet.Aroma : Initial aromas evoke violet, cassis, dark licorice and a spicy note of black pepper, leading to undertones of aromatic herbs, incense, dried rose petals, clove and cedar.Taste : Sleek and intense on entry with elegant herbal, light black pepper and cassis flavors on the mid palate.
Review:
After Bolgheri’s torrid and parched 2017 growing season, more moder-ate conditions in 2018 brought the vines and their wines shimmering to life. All of the wines at Ca’Marcanda fermented spontaneously in 2018, which Gaia Gaja attributes to the balance in the musts. This wine, a blend of cabernets sauvignon and franc, is taut and energetic, its flavors of crunchy plum and blackberry laced with notes of licorice, tobacco and graphite.
-Wine & Spirits 96 Points
The Ca' Marcanda estate does not make a Bolgheri Superiore, although this bottle would qualify as such. The 2018 Bolgheri Rosso Camarcanda is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, and you definitely feel those full-throttle varietal aromas with big intensity and clarity. Spicy greenness comes forward as grilled rosemary and lavender essence, but the wine boasts nice depth and dimension, and enough textual richness to smooth it all out. This was a slightly cooler vintage with some sporadic rain showers throughout the summer. These conditions might explain the sharper side of those Cabernet aromas. As the wine moves over the palate, it reveals more substantial aromas of black fruit, spice and baker's chocolate. This vintage is slightly thinner than the hot 2017 expression before it and the classic 2016. However, this wine should certainly play forward positively in terms of its aging potential.
-Wine Advocate 95 Points
Dense and fluid at once, this red delivers plum, black cherry, licorice, olive, bay leaf and spice flavors. Ripe and balanced, with a lingering, spicy, tobacco-tinged aftertaste. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2023 through 2033. 1,500 cases made, 225 cases imported. — BS
-Wine Spectator 95 Points
Inglenook Rubicon is made from 93% Cabernet Sauvignon 7% Cabernet Franc.
Since its inaugural vintage in 1978, Rubicon has been the Estate's premier red wine, reflecting the soul of the property and expressing Francis Coppola's wish to create a Bordeaux-styled grand wine, that is, "a wine that can please contemporary taste, but with a historical aspect [that defines] our vineyards at their zenith."
Rubicon was named after the small river crossed by Julius Caesar in 49 B.C., declaring his intention to gain control of Rome, thereby launching a civil war among opposing factions. Over time the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" has come to signify any irreversible action with revolutionary intent or the outcome of which holds great risk. True to its uncommon depth, Inglenook's Rubicon continues to be a testament to the finely tuned rendering of a risk well-taken.
2016:
After four years of drought, a winter with average rainfall was welcome, as it provided ample soil moisture for a strong start to the 2016 growing season. Average late-spring temperatures and limited precipitation minimized the risk of frost during mid-May bloom, ensuring average yields. June closed with a heat spell, slowing vine canopy growth at the ideal time. Harvest of the blocks contributing to the 2016 Inglenook Rubicon blend occurred under optimum conditions from September 6th through September 27th.
Ideal harvest conditions endowed the 2016 Rubicon with the three elements associated with a truly great wine from the Rutherford appellation: complexity, balance, and elegance. The aromas are intense and focused with top notes of creamy, sweet vanilla, and black licorice wound around a core of exquisitely ripe black cherry and crème de cassis. This refinement extends directly to the palate, where the wine is both broad and deep with sensuous, silky tannins. Supremely balanced in terms of both opulence and complexity, ripe black fruits and an ultra-smooth texture provide an impressive crescendo to a very long finish.
Review:
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Rubicon is a wine of total precision and class. Translucent and energetic, with distinctly mid-weight structure, the 2016 is a wine of reserve, tension and breeding. Shy at first, the 2016 has a lot to offer, but it needs a number of years in bottle to be at its most expressive. Cedar, tobacco, licorice and wild cherry add the closing nuances.
- Antonio Galloni 97 Points
Marchesi Di Gresy Barbaresco Martinenga Camp Gros Riserva is made from 100 percent Nebbiolo.
Review:
Gorgeous scents of cherry, raspberry, rose hip and white pepper are augmented by leather, tobacco and chalky, mineral flavors in this detailed, complex red, which starts out fresh and inviting, before the dense matrix of tannins puts a lock on the finish. Nonetheless, this has length, harmony and stellar potential. Best from 2025 through 2043. 663 cases made, 50 cases imported.
-Wine Spectator 96 Points
Gaja Sperss is made from 100 percent Nebbiolo.
Vibrant and intense notes of herbs and spices such as thyme, cloves and black pepper. On the palate the wine is tense, loaded with energy that will need serious ageing to fully develop although extremely approachable in its youth. Impressive fruit concentration, with dark and ripe fruits – prunes and black cherries. Acidity and tannins lift this wine to its freshest expression.
Nebbiolo based wines have not only complexity and structure but also great elegance and finesse. The distinctive silky tannins of the Nebbiolo make it the right wine to drink with meat. Usually a young vintage goes very well with richer dishes because of the stronger tannins; mature Barolos are more suitable with delicate white meat courses or braised meat courses with sauces or concentrated red wines reductions.
Review:
The 2018 Barolo Sperss is a gorgeous, gorgeous wine. The aromatics alone are beguiling. Then again, that's one of the things that makes Barolo such a totally seductive wine. Sweet black cherry, lavender, spice and leather give this unusually translucent Barolo striking layers of dimension. Potent Serralunga tannins are present, but they are beautifully woven into the wine's fabric. Sadly, production is around 11,000 bottles, down sharply from the 18,000 or so that is more typical.
- -- Antonio Galloni 97 Points
My First comment tasting this wine is "wow!" It's delicious; our flagship wine at Paradigm and it delivers. Dense, deep, ripe aromas of black berry and black cherry-like fruit layered with caramel and toastiness from a nice mix of French Oak barrels. Flavors coat the palate with matching notes in a classic Cabernet Sauvignon presentation. One of our best Cabs to date!
Paradigm Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot , 1% Petit Verdot
Review:
"Owned and managed by the Harris family, Paradigm winery produced its first vintage in 1991 in Oakville with winemaker Heidi Barrett. A self-contained winery estate with 50 acres of vineyards, Paradigm maintains a hands-on approach to all winemaking and vineyard operations. The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon consists of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and 2% Cabernet Franc, and is aged in both new and used French oak for 20 months, then aged a further 20 months in bottle before release. The total production for this vintage was 5,544 bottles." Blind tasted by Dave Allen, Stephen Brook, Terry Kandylis (at Decanter Magazine's December 2019 Californian Cabernet 2015 Panel Tasting, London, 17 Sep 2019)
- Decanter 95 Points
Luis Canas Reserva Seleccion de la Familia Rioja is made from 85% Tempranillo and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon
Aged for 20 months in new oak barrels - 50% French 50% American.
45 years old vines
Alcohol: 14,5º
Total acidity: 5,73 g./l.
Volatile acidity: 0,73 g./l.
PH: 3,53
Free SO2: 28 mg./l.
Reducing sugars: 1,3 g./l.
The “family reserve” from one of Rioja Alavesa’s most enduring family-run wineries. Wines destined to be the Reserva de la Familia label are made from a selection of grapes from old vines, those which combine a series of characteristics such as good orientation and exposure to the sun, and a poor soil which ensures low yields.
This wine is one of very few Rioja wines to blend Cabernet Sauvignon with Tempranillo. Bodegas Luis Cañas was granted permission by the D.O.Ca. to plant this variety as an experiment in the early 1980s.
Tasting notes
A brilliant garnet color with cherry hints on the edges.
The nose offers a complex variety of aromas that combine to bring an intense and sophisticated wine. Initially we can find very ripe berry fruits, smoky notes, raisins and liquor. After a certain amount of aeration, the cinnamon and jam notes appear and, with a little more time, the roasted and spiced aromas are noticed more clearly.
The palate is full, with a good presence of tannins, although these are offset by the glycerine like character, resulting in a fleshy sensation. Long lasting and lingering finish.
Winemaking and aging:
The grapes were cold macerated for 72 hours upon arrival at the winery. They underwent fermentation at 26º C in sealed cement tanks under constant thermal control, with the must pumped over daily. With the paste devatted by gravity, spontaneous malolactic fermentation took place after 45 days.
The wine was aged for 20 months in 50% medium toasted American and 50% French oak barrels. The barrel ageing not only adds tannins from the wood, but stabilizes the wine naturally. After the final racking, it was clarified in tanks with a small amount of natural egg white, decanted after 30 days and bottled directly without any type of filtration. Because this wine’s evolutionary cycle is quite slow, only corks of the highest quality available were used to ensure that it could be prolonged for several years.