Roagna

8/28/17 -

For the last few years we’ve been trying to get in touch with Luca Roagna so that we could visit with him, but Luca is very busy and not easy to find. In the meantime the wines seemed to be getting expensive, especially the Barbaresco Crichet Paje, which is now at least $450, often a lot more, and the other bottlings didn’t look like bargains.  I would remind myself that Roagna does some of the best grape farming in Italy, and that the winemaking was getting better and better, but I was still skeptical.

Then, as a late surprise we were able to visit with Luca in Castiglione Falletto, on the last day of our May trip. We’d had a stellar 16-day stay in Barolo, tasting the mostly very fine 2013s, and we frankly were not expecting anything to surpass any of those highlights. We were mistaken! The quality of the wines is as good as any others in the region – high praise indeed. To say that our small group was stunned, blown-away, amazed, entranced – all would be an understatement. Since the wines are given some extra time in bottle before release, these are some of the current releases. If you like the wines of Cappellano, Bartolo Mascarello, and Giuseppe Rinaldi, you owe it to yourself to try Roagna 2011. 

- Jamie Wolff