2020 Ca’ Nova, Barbaresco, Montestefano 6x75cl

La Ca’ Nova: One Of Barbaresco’s Best-Kept Secrets

Situated in the historic hills of Piedmont, La Ca’ Nova is one of the most exciting, critically acclaimed estates operating in Barbaresco today. Managed by Pietro Rocca, the estate has roughly 12 hectares of highly prized hillside plots and uses them to craft traditionally styled Nebbiolos that rival some of the best of the best, and do so at a fraction of the price.

A Style of Striking Purity and Uncompromising Traditionalism

The winemaking style at La Ca’ Növa is celebrated for its wild aromatic complexity, electric mineral energy, and completely unadorned structural honesty. The Roccas are fierce traditionalists, utterly rejecting the use of modern shortcuts. Instead, the Nebbiolo grapes undergo long, slow macerations on the skins using only wild yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wines are subsequently aged for up to two years in large, neutral Slavonian oak casks and are bottled entirely unfined and unfiltered.

This non-interventionalist regimen yields a wine characterised by a pale, translucent ruby hue and a remarkably savoury, high-toned profile. They are so good that Antonio Galloni writes, “These remain some of my favorite wines in all of Piedmont, and wines I regularly buy for my own cellar.”

The Unrivalled Value Of La Ca’ Nova

The desirability of La Ca’ Növa is anchored by their spectacular, old-vine holdings in two of Barbaresco’s most legendary Grand Cru-level MGA (geographic designations): Montestefano and Montefico. The Montestefano bottling is a monument of dense, dark-fruited structure, muscular tannins, and deep, earthy clay complexity, whereas the Montefico (sourced from the limestone-rich Bric Mentina plot) is a masterpiece of verticality, high-toned floral aromatics, and laser-like, mineral-driven acidity.

Despite receiving stratospheric praise from the world’s leading wine critics, the Rocca family has famously maintained extremely fair, grounded cellar-door prices. They come very highly recommended indeed.