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Wine Tasting Adventure

2020 Corino Giovanni di Corino Giuliano, Barolo `Bricco Manescotto` - Liberty

£64.99 GBP
£64.99 GBP

The Corino family have farmed land in La Morra since the 1950s, originally coming to the region as ‘mezzadri’, or sharecroppers. Yet it wasn’t until Giuliano Corino took over from his grandfather Giovanni in the 1980s that the Corino name became synonymous with some of La Morra’s finest Nebbiolo. Having originally sold their fruit, Giuliano was determined to start making and bottling his own wine from his family's vines.

The 1980s were a momentous time for winemaking in Barolo. With the advent of new thinking, based on foundations laid by the great Angelo Gaja, Giuliano experimented with rotary fermenters, short macerations, and small French oak barrels. In all his wines, tannins are perfectly managed, and oak is beautifully integrated, the result of Giuliano’s interpretation of a style that sits comfortably between tradition and modernity.

Today, Giuliano is helped both in the vineyard and cellar by his wife Stefania, daughter Veronica and son Andrea. Their wines offer wonderful expressions of the prime sites planted just below La Morra, where the estate’s 9.5 hectares are farmed.

The Langhe Nebbiolo is unoaked and released after one year ageing in stainless steel, resulting in a beautiful purity and fragrance with great balance. The Barolo hails from several sites around Annunziata, within the commune of La Morra. It is powerful yet balanced with alluring notes of redberry fruit and spices. The two single vineyards, ‘Giachini’ and ‘Arborina’, are planted on opposite sides of the small hamlet of Annunziata, where the winery is based. The soils here are primarily calcareous marl clays. While ‘Giachini’ faces south, ‘Arborina’ has a southeastern aspect, and its soils comprise a higher proportion of sand. The Barolo ‘Giachini’ shows an amplified complexity and density, while the superb Barolo ‘Arborina’ displays elegance and power, with its ripe fruit leavened by hints of spice and floral notes.

The ‘Bricco Manescotto’ vineyard, on the border with Castiglione Falletto, enjoys a southwestern exposure with soils comprised of equal parts clay, sand and marl. As with his other Barolos, after harvesting and crushing, Giuliano controls extraction during fermentation with rotary fermenters at 25 – 30°C. After malolactic fermentation in stainless steel, most of the wines are matured for up to 24 months in small French barrels, of which roughly a third are new. Once blended, the wines spend about six months in stainless steel before bottling.

The Bricco Manescotto vineyard is located in Frazione Annunziata, in the commune of La Morra, on the border with Castiglione Falletto. The vineyard sits at 240-260 meters above sea level and enjoys an ideal south-western exposure. The soil is mainly calcareous and clayey with some traces of sand. Vines are Guyot pruned.

The 2020 vintage began with a relatively dry and sunny early spring. May brought considerable rainfall and unsettled weather that persisted through late June, creating challenges during the growing season. Moderate overnight temperatures in late summer allowed the grapes to develop perfectly by mid-September.

The berries underwent five to seven days of maceration in temperature-controlled rotary fermenters at 25-30°C, then fermentation took place in stainless-steel tanks. After malolactic fermentation, the wine was moved to French oak barriques (225 litres) for 24 months. The wine was transferred to stainless-steel tanks for final blending and stayed there for six months. Finally, the wine spent a year in bottle before release.

On the nose, this wine has delicate aromas of red fruits, sweet tobacco, cedar and spices. The palate has intense flavours of dried strawberries, spices and cedarwood. It has a full body with silky tannins balanced by high acidity making this a powerful but balanced, and attractive Barolo, with a long, lingering finish.