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Uutiset
"The 2005 Barolo Le Vigne opens with fresh, high-toned aromas that meld into a core of perfumed red fruits. There is notable vibrancy to the fruit, and although the 2005 is a relatively small-scaled vintage for this wine, the balance is exceptional. The Le Vigne has more than enough fruit to follow through all the way to the close, where notes of raspberry jam offer a final burst of intensity. Le Vigne is made from a number of parcels in Vignane (Barolo), Conterni and Ceretta (Monforte) and Merli (Novello). In 2005 the harvest took place in the first two weeks of October. The wines were vinified separately, then racked into 500-liter barrels. The final blend was assembled in the summer of 2006. Every year I taste through the various parcels separately and every year I am amazed by the way the final blend transcends the quality of the individual wines. Simply put, Le Vigne is a gem of a wine from Luciano Sandrone."
94 Points Wine Advocate
Viinin Kuvailu
The Story
Barolo Le Vigne is often a dark and impenetrable wine in its youth. With proper cellaring, this wine reveals more classic Barolo aspects of black cherries, tar, violets and roses. This wine can outlive the Cannubi Boschis bottling in great years: Le Vigne shows more tannins than its brother and possesses amazing freshness and length.
Le Vigne is a wine created from four different Nebbiolo vineyards, each of which brings its own contribution. This union generates an exceptionally complex wine that is round and harmonious on the palate, with fruity and spicy notes, and this approach of blending together plots is in fact the traditional one in Barolo.
The first vineyard, Vignane, is situated in the historical part of the Barolo appellation and shares many characteristics with Cannubi but does not possess the latter's aromatic complexity. The wines show softness and elegance, and a distinct mid-palate mouthfeel that enhances the sense of richness when combined with other, more austere grapes. The second vineyard, Merli, is located in the Novello part of the appellation, with the Sandrone section in a south-southwest facing bowl that captures the afternoon light perfectly. The wines made from here are earthy and robust but with good aromatic complexity. The third vineyard, Baudana, is located in Serralunga d'Alba. The 2011 vintage marks the first time that Luciano Sandrone has included fruit from a fourth vineyard, Villero, a 3.7 acre plot in Castiglione Falletto, which they recently acquired via a long-term lease.
Each vineyard is vinified separately, and after destemming and light crushing, the must is covered with CO2 for a gentle warm maceration of approximately a day. Alcoholic fermentation begins about 24-36 hours later from native yeasts. A gentle maceration takes place in upright open-top steel tanks for the first 9-15 days of alcoholic fermentation. Immediately after alcoholic fermentation, which takes 28-30 days, malolactic fermentation takes place in 500 liter French oak casks. The wine is aged in these casks for 24 months, followed by 18 months bottle aging. Around 1,300 cases are produced in a typical vintage.
Ancient art. Le Vigne Barolo interprets the ancient handed-down wisdom and tradition of Langhe and Barolo of assembling the Nebbiolo grapes from various vineyards. We interpret this historic practice by working only with indigenous yeasts and by keeping the grapes of each vineyard separated during the fermentation and wood ageing, rather than combining them during fermentation.
A perfect diagonal. We meticulously selected four vineyards so as to bring out all the characteristics of the Barolo area. The vineyards of Baudana in Serralunga d'Alba, Villero in Castiglione Falletto, Vignane in Barolo and Merli in Novello form a perfect diagonal across the area which encompasses different terrains: light and sandy, more compact and deep, and all at different altitudes and exposures.
Every year is a new discovery.Harvested, vinified and aged separately, only the best lots are mixed together during the assemblage so as to express the uniqueness of the vineyards and enhance the particularities of each vintage.
Wine Information
The climatic trend of 2005 was rather particular, but on the whole very good. The winter was within the norm as far as temperatures were concerned, but there was a marked lack of precipitation, especially snow.
We had to wait for the April rains to build up satisfactory water reserves and May and June were so hot as to cause fears that the torrid summer of 2003 would be repeated. Fortunately, thanks to several drops in temperature and the arrival of storms, some of which were violent, July and August mitigated a summer which had started off extremely hot. A few days of rain during the first week of September caused us to worry a little, but our fears turned out to be groundless as the fine weather that followed stayed with us until the end of the grape harvest, apart from the rainfall between the 3rd and 7th of October, which posed a few risks. In conclusion, thanks in part to meticulous thinning and leaf removal, the 2005 harvest gave us excellent quality grapes.
The grapes were harvested between the 1st and the 15th of October. As always, each vineyard was harvested and vinified separately and, following maceration (7-12 days) and alcoholic fermentation (about 28 days) in steel, the various batches were transferred into French oak casks with a capacity of 500 litres, where they underwent malolactic fermentation until the end of January 2006. During the summer, when the first racking took place and the potential of every batch was assured, they were all blended and the wine continued ageing in wood until the end of December 2007. Bottling was carried out in January 2008, producing a total of 17,500 bottles, 700 magnums and 90 double magnums. The wine then continued to mature for a further 18 months in our cellars.
The blending of wines of different origins and therefore with different characteristics is always fascinating. This year the result is a very complex, articulate and structured but elegant wine, a perfect interpretation of a vintage which can be described as classic.
Vuosikerta 2005
Italy Vintage Report by Tb: 2005 was a very difficult year for producers. A dry and chilly summer turned into a rainy August. Piedmont was battered by hailstorms and a disease affecting the Baco 22, which dries out and eventually kills the vine. Tuscany was also hit by chilly, rainy weather and the challenges these pose for vineyards. It can be said that 2005 was entirely a winemaker's year, even if it was somewhat desperate.
