Az. Agr. Sottimano was founded in 1975 by Maggiore Sottimano, the cellar and a small holding in the Cotta vineyard were first purchased in the commune of Nieve in Barbaresco.  Over the next 30 years Maggiore grew the estate's Nebbiolo holdings in some of Barbaresco most famous vineyards - Cotta, Pajore, Fausoni, Curra and in 2001 added Basarin.  The estates production of Barbera comes from the single vineyard Pairolero, Dolcetto from Bric del Salto and the gorgeous Brachetto from Mate.

Today Maggiore's son Andrea has taken over the wine making but still uses his father's 30+ years of experience to make decisions in the vineyard and cellar.  Andrea works with a light hand in the cellar.  Macerations for Nebbiolo are around 18 days, the malo-lactic stage occurs naturally in French oak barrique on the lees for up to 12 months depending on that vintage's development.  Frementation is made with natural ambient yeasts and the wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Andrea has developed a finely tuned barrel program at his estate, with close communication and tastings with master coopers at Francois Freres.  Andrea believes the barrels are extremely important to the maturation of the wine, but he does not want flavors of wood to be expressed in the wines or get in the way of the minerality and fruit.

In the vineyard the work is very important, low yields are a must to produce wines of structure, full body and ageability. 

Since 1990 the vineyards have been farmed organic, no systemic pesticides, chemical fertilizers or fungicides are used.  When there is need for treatments, eco-products are used and used very sparingly.

Total production all wines: 7000 cases