Wine friends,

This is the 16th of 18 spring season offers. Only two more wine opportunities in the pipeline! 

There’s still plenty of time to fill your cases from the remaining and previous offers. If you need help selecting, just send me an email.

Now then…

As I’ve said before, Giuseppe Cortese’s Barbaresco Rabajà (single vineyard) is a legendary and singular Piedmont wine. It may also be the greatest value of all of the great Piedmont wines. 

The online average price for this 2020 Rabajà is $68 – really, a modest price tag for one of the most revered wines in all of Italy. (All the major U.S. critics seem to have given this 2020 Rabajà 93-95 points. And it’s even more highly regarded by the Italian wine press.)

Please note that our OT price today is about $4 lower than the best price elsewhere.

Today’s second wine, Cortese’s 2021 DOCG Barbaresco (the “classical Barbaresco," as Tiziana Cortese calls it), is another value champion. 

While Rabajà is one the greatest values in high-end Italian wine, the DOCG Barbaresco is probably the best bang for your buck in Langhe Nebbiolo, to include Barbaresco, Barolo, and Roero. 

Once again, our Italy-direct pricing compares very favorably to the market elsewhere for the 2021 Cortese Barbaresco. (The same link indicates the average score for this wine among U.S. critics is 93 points).

These Open Tuesday bottles will be sent directly from Italy, by air, in a temperature controlled environment. No hot warehouses, and no retail shelves.

Giuseppe Cortese 2021 Barbaresco

The 2021 Cortese is a structured and savory red wine that’s long on the palate and loaded with character, especially at this price point. It shows notes of underbrush and leather alongside dark red fruit, with firm but pleasing tannins. Compared to the Rabajà, this wine will be more expressive and ready-to-drink upon delivery in late April-early May. The Rabajà, meanwhile, would prefer to sit in your cellar a few years before you open it.

Giuseppe Cortese 2020 Barbaresco Rabajà

Cortese’s 202 Rabajà is a stately and elegant red wine showing notes of currant, raspberry, herbs, leather, and tobacco. All flavors are in balance and fully integrated – nothing dominates, yet all parts are discernable and pure. This is a wine that’s built to age and evolve for many years to come. 

To order, just click one of the blue links above and follow the prompts.

Here are some photos of the Cortese family and their vineyards.

Here’s the Cortese estate on the map of northwestern Italy.

I know I said this about I Favati recently, but It’s getting tough to keep track of all of Cortese’s awards and accolades. Thank goodness for the Cortese Facebook page.

Food pairing: The DOCG Barbaresco pairs beautifully with most Italian meat and pasta dishes. While I’d shy away from opening it with pizza, it will shine with osso buco, lasagna, cotoletta alla milanese, and spaghetti alla bolognese.

As for the Barbaresco Rabajà, I’d look for foods with straight-forward flavors and few ingredients. Nothing complex at all. Aged cheese, grilled lamb shanks, or braised short ribs would work well. 

Happy Tuesday,

Chris

If you have any questions or feedback, please email us: [email protected].  

Receive a $25 credit for every referred member after the purchase of their first bottle.

How it works: 

After clicking one of the links above, you’ll be able to request 1-12 bottles. Actually, that’s all you have to do!

About a week later, when we close the offer, you’ll get an email confirming how many bottles we allocated to your account. We will charge you when the wines are allocated.

We’ll do our best to allocate all the bottles you request. When there are more requests than bottles available, we’ll allocate one bottle to all requesting members before allocating a second bottle to anyone. We want as many members as possible to try these wines.

This is the 16th offer of our 2024 spring season. Through the end of March, we will send 2-3 offers per week, with a total of 18 offers planned.

We ship in increments of 12. With 18 offers this season, there should be plenty of chances to get to 12, 24, or 36. 

If you don’t have an increment of 12 at the end of this spring season, we can hold your wines until the fall offer season.

Wines offered in the spring will ship in April for $5 per bottle (if you have an increment of 12.) This is about the same as the price to ship coast-to-coast within the U.S. – but our wines come directly from Italy.

Once your payment method is on file, you can make future requests with just a few clicks from the offer email. If you don’t have a card on file, you can add one during your first order. Your personal financial information is protected by Stripe.

Chris MacLean

Rob Genova

Open Tuesday Wines S.r.l.s.

Milano - Italy