Luciano Sandrone Barbera d’Alba 2017

Description

 “Extraordinary producers of Barolo, Luciano Sandrone and his wife worked at Marchesi di Barolo before acquiring a tiny plot of land outside their native village of Barolo in 1977.  Theirs quickly became a cult wine, first with their 1982 and 1985 vintages.  Then they made a wine that merited one of the first perfect scores I ever gave a Barolo, the 1990.  There is attention to detail in the vineyard and in the winery at every level, and the results are wines that are hybrid creations, paying respect to both progressives and traditionalists.” Robert Parker, The World’s Greatest Wine Estates

“Luciano Sandrone is one of the leading lights in Piedmont. No grower has managed to so brilliantly reconcile modern and traditional approaches in making wines that are soft, supple and approachable when young, but also capable of aging beautifully.” Antonio Galloni, Wine Advocate

One of the things least discussed about this famous producer is the quality of their work in the vineyards. Sandrone is truly one of the regional leaders in this area. Firstly, they are organic in a region where organic practice is still very rare. Secondly, Luca Sandrone is a perfectionist (like his brother) and is completely obsessed with the vines he manages. His focus is very much on making the vines stronger, healthier and more resilient rather than the symptomatic approach that is so typical. A great deal of the vineyard work is done by hand with the Estate employing twelve full time workers in the vines alone (for 27 hectares). Luca and Luciano openly reference Burgundy in their approach and seek to harvest only perfectly ripe and perfectly clean fruit. This is one of the keys to the purity and flesh of the wines. Another little known fact is that 30-50% of the fruit is fermented whole bunch with the destemmed portion of the fruit also having a very high percentage of whole berries. Luciano Sandrone remembers well that once upon a time all of the wines of the region were made without destemming. All the maturation occurs in large format oak, 500 litre and beyond, and only a small percentage of this oak is new (10% across the winery).  In the cellar the work is very minimal with only wild yeast fermentation and no filtration. The macerations are managed very carefully and the bottling occurs relatively early as Luciano Sandrone wants to capture the finest tannins and as much fruit purity as possible (another key to understanding the wines produced here).

Of course, like all great growers, the main key is the vineyards themselves. There is no doubt that today Sandrone works with a spectacular range of Barolo vineyards. Yes there is the famous Cannubi Boschis, but there are also outstanding Barolo sites in Monforte, Serralunga, Castiglione Falletto, Novello and more in the Barolo township itself, that all feed the Le Vigne cuvee. Little wonder then that this wine now comfortably rivals (and some would argue in certain years eclipses) the Cannubi for quality.

Sandrone’s inky, layered, polished Barbera is drawn from three sites: the Cascina Pe Mol, mentioned above, as well as Ravera and Rocche di San Nicola (in Novello). At between 1200-1500 feet these are, again, some of the highest, most exposed vineyards in the region. As per the Dolcetto, Sandrone runs some of the region’s finest sites for this variety and does so organically (in fact all of the vineyards of Sandrone are managed organically by the talented Luca Sandrone). The first two sites are briefly mentioned above. Rocche di San Nicola is an extremely steep vineyard at the very end of the Novello promontory, its sun catching location helping to deliver ripeness and texture to balance Barbera’s natural acidity. To bring the structure for which this wine is noted Sandrone mature their Barbera in 500 litre tonneaux, 40% of which are new. The estate has special, untoasted barrels made (in Burgundy) for this cuvée, so as to ensure the wood impact is discreet. Of course when the wine is young, some oak shows through on the nose, but it is seriously classy oak. 2017 was a brilliant vintage for Barbera and it shows here with flamboyant waves of dark cherry and plum fruit. Again, a seriously classy wine.

“Ripeness is pushed to the edge in the 2017 Barbera d’Alba, a wine that very much shows the flamboyance of the year. Super-ripe red cherry, red plum, exotic flowers and sweet spice all race out of the glass in a hedonistic, full-throttle wine loaded with personality. There is zero subtlety here, but the wine is undoubtedly very pretty.” 92 points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous

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