Riccardo Cotarella

Today, Riccardo Cotarella has nothing to prove. Italy’s “Wine Wizard” has consulted for the Pope, for Sting, for 86 wineries across four continents. Then came an invitation from Russia—a country where he’d never worked, on terroir no one had mapped.

I don't like to limit myself in fantasies.

The Question Everyone Was Asking #

The question puzzled everyone who knew Riccardo’s career. President of the International Enologists Union, founder of the celebrated Falesco winery in Umbria, credited with transforming Italian winemaking over four decades. At 71, consulting fees weren’t the motivation. Fame wasn’t either—he had more than he needed.

“At this stage I don’t need fame or money, there’s no point in me getting involved in projects that don’t interest me,” he explained in a 2019 interview. “Why would I risk my reputation?”

The answer lay in the challenge itself. Russian fine wine was an oxymoron to international critics. The country had no premium tradition, no established terroir maps, no credibility with global competitions. Accepting the consultancy meant associating his name with a category that serious winemakers dismissed.

But Riccardo had built his career on exactly these situations—regions where people thought nothing good could emerge.

The Coast They Said Would Never Produce Wine #

Riccardo’s reference point wasn’t conventional wine country. “This is not Maremma, in spirit it’s closer to Bolgheri,” he observed after his first visit to the Black Sea cliffs. The comparison was deliberate.

Bolgheri, on Tuscany’s coast, was once dismissed agricultural land—good for vegetables, unsuitable for serious viticulture. Then a few visionary winemakers proved the critics wrong. Today, Bolgheri produces some of Italy’s most expensive bottles, including the legendary Sassicaia.

The parallel to Gelendzhik was obvious to him. Limestone-marl soils, Mediterranean-like microclimate, coastal exposure. The Black Sea plateau had never been mapped for premium wine potential, but the geological foundations reminded him of terroirs that had defied expectations before. The region also had something Bolgheri had lacked in its early years: the lowest annual precipitation in all of Krasnodar Krai, and Pitsunda pines to the north that sheltered the vines from steppe winds.

“You don’t necessarily need generations of viticulturists to make excellent wines,” he would later argue. “Remember Bolgheri—they used to grow fruits and vegetables there.”

Black Sea Cliffs in July #

Riccardo’s first visit to the Divnomorskoye vineyards came in July 2017. What he found was an estate already producing award-winning wines under chief enologist Matteo Coletti—but lacking the strategic vision to consolidate its early successes.

The 2014 Mundus Vini triumph with seven gold medals had validated the terroir. But international markets remained skeptical. Russian wine still couldn’t escape its reputation problem. The estate needed someone whose name alone could shift perceptions—someone willing to stake personal credibility on continued quality.

For Riccardo, the calculation was personal. “My biggest drive is proving that great wines can be produced where people previously thought nothing good would come out,” he explained. The Russian project aligned with his core conviction: that expertise could unlock terroir potential anywhere, regardless of regional reputation.

By September, he had committed. The consulting arrangement began immediately.

One Year. Gold. Best Wine from Russia. #

The timeline shocked even optimists. In 2018—barely a year after his arrival—the estate’s Merlot 2014 won Mundus Vini Gold with 92 points, earning the designation “Best Wine from Russia.” The vintage predated his involvement, but the award confirmed the terroir he was now actively steering.

Two years later came the clearer test. REBO 2015 had been aging in French oak barrels when Riccardo joined in September 2017; he shaped its final months before bottling. At the 2020 Mundus Vini, it won “Best of Show Russia.” The result confirmed that quality was a direction, not an accident.

Riccardo’s approach at Divnomorskoye emphasized terroir expression over formula replication. “My goal is to make excellent wines from the varieties already planted at the estate,” he stated. “I want to achieve the best possible quality for this place by studying local terroirs.”

The philosophy rejected the temptation to impose Italian styles on Russian conditions. Instead, he worked to understand what the Black Sea cliffs could uniquely produce—then optimize winemaking to reveal those characteristics.

Coast or Risk It? #

There was no obvious career reason to say yes. Riccardo had already achieved everything a winemaker could: the UIE presidency, 86 consulting relationships, recognition from Robert Parker. Russia offered no credential he lacked.

What it offered was the problem. The terroir was unmapped, the category dismissed, the outcome genuinely uncertain. For someone whose stated mission was proving that great wines could emerge from unlikely places, the Black Sea cliffs were not a detour from his work. They were the point of it.

Russian wine now has an unlikely champion. And an Italian winemaker has reminded the industry that mastery means choosing risks, not avoiding them.

Last updated: March 15, 2026