The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.
Wine Description
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
A vintage like 2019 comes along only a few times in the career of a winemaker and the 3-generation Sandrone team took full advantage of the potential of this extraordinary year. The Barolo Le Vigne 2019 lets its exceptional power shine through, waiting for its best moment to come. It will require patience!
The nose is compact and full of dark fruits, spice, licorice and violet notes, closed and tightly wound but bursting with potential. The flavors are still one-dimensional at this early stage, but patience will yield a wine of great complexity and structure for long ageing. The finish is very dry with ripe tannins that seem to linger for minutes.
Vintage 2019
A wet late winter and early spring replenished the water tables. Budbreak was late March in the normal timeframe. Heat arrived after the flowering in late June for 10 days, which helped with the berry set.
The rest of the vegetative cycle was cooler than normal except for another 10 days of moderate heat just before the veraison.
Intermittent rains throughout the summer refreshed the plants and ground cover vegetation. A water bomb on 5 September brought hail to some parts of the Barolo and Barbaresco areas, luckily, none of the Sandrone vineyards were affected, though the hail passed about 500 meters from the Baudana vineyard sites.
From 6 September on conditions were perfect thru the rest of the harvest period, with warm, dry days and cool, refreshing nights.
The grape variety Nebbiolo, which by its nature is very resistant and able to thrive even in extreme weather, has benefitted from the climatic conditions of the season. The result is a perfect balance of fruit and acidity.
Harvest took place from October 8th until 18th.
