Cascina Penna-Currado 'San Sebastiano' Nebbiolo d'Alba 2023
Cascina Penna-Currado 'San Sebastiano' Nebbiolo d'Alba 2023
(90-93) pts Vinous (Galloni)
Drinking Window 2026 - 2043
The 2023 Nebbiolo d’Alba San Sebastiano hails from older vines at Bricco Lago and saw the longer aging required by the appellation. From cask, it is a gorgeous and promising wine. Dark varietal fruit, graphite, lavender, sage and spice soar from the glass. Bright acids and veins of tannin shape this vibrant, wonderfully salivating Nebbiolo. I can’t wait to taste it from bottle. - By Antonio Galloni on September 2024
It’s been quite a whirlwind for Elena Penna and Luca Currado. Penna and Currado left Vietti in January 2023 and quickly set up shop in a historic farmhouse in Serralunga. Along the way, they secured fruit from several top sources for Cascina Penna-Currado, the new winery they are operating with children Michele and Giulia, with a vision of returning to a smaller, more artisanal scale. These include parcels in San Sebastiano, a cool-climate sector in Monforte d’Alba leased from a grower who was previously a grape supplier to Vietti, and several vineyards in Barolo. The pace has been unbelievably fast. When I stopped by in September 2023, the farmhouse consisted of two dilapidated buildings. A year later, it is a fully equipped winery. Progress has been significant, but naturally, plenty of work lies ahead.
In tasting, I found the 2022s quite rustic. The wines were made in a period of intense transition away from Vietti, the family winery Penna and Currado operated for several decades. The 2022s clearly show the imperfections of wines made under very challenging circumstances. They are both stylistically and qualitatively quite different from the wines at Vietti and those that follow here. The 2023s, on the other hand, are a major step forward. This is truly where Cascina Penna-Currado starts. The wines are made with a lighter hand than what readers became accustomed to at Vietti. There is stem inclusion in the Dolcetto and some of the Nebbiolo lots, but whole clusters are not especially intrusive, at least in the early going. The range is expected to include Dolcetto, Barbera d’Alba, two Nebbiolos from Bricco Lago (a simpler, younger-vine Langhe Nebbiolo and a more serious Nebbiolo d’Alba), a blended Barolo from first-rate sites, two vineyard designate Barolos and Timorasso.
