From: Piemonte, Italy
Varietal: Barbera
Taste & Critical Acclaim: Winemaker Notes. The warm weather in the last part of the 2021 vintage gave Barbera a potent, powerful frame on which hang the aromas and flavors of blackberries, blueberries, spice and earth notes. The vibrant acidity keeps the wine light on its feet, dancing on the palate, where the flavors of black stone fruits and black raspberries envelop the taste buds. There are notes of tannins from the tonneaux, which give a bit of structure but are in no way dominant. The finish has notes of wood, minerals and a long fade that lingers in the mouth. Vibrant, fresh, crackling with the energy of ripe black fruits.
92 Vinous. The 2022 Barbera d'Alba is packed with ripe red cherry/plum fruit. Mocha, spice, cedar and leather add layers of nuance. This succulent, forward Barbera is an absolute delight.
91 Jeb Dunnuck.
The 2022 Barbera D'Alba offers a more luxurious, oak-spiced profile in its notes of toasted cedar, baked plum, vanilla beans, and violets. Full-bodied, plush, ripe, and long, it’s going to take time to integrate. Give it at least another year or two and drink over the following 6-8 years. A robust and warming wine, this is a solid entry for Cab drinkers.
Pairing: The 2022 Sandrone Barbera d'Alba is a vibrant, food-friendly wine with bright acidity and firm structure, making it an ideal match for a wide range of dishes. It shines with rich, savory fare like grilled or roasted meats, stews, and hearty pastas, and complements aged cheeses, charcuterie, and robust vegetable dishes such as mushroom risotto or roasted root vegetables. Its affinity for Piedmontese cuisine is clear—try it with Brasato al Barolo, tajarin, or bagna cauda. For a standout pairing, Melissa Clark’s adaptation of Maureen Abood’s Eggplant with Lamb, Tomato, and Pine Nuts—a Lebanese-inspired dish—beautifully highlights the wine’s versatility. Vegetarian pairings work well too, especially dishes featuring mushrooms, eggplant, squash, or creamy polenta.
About. Luciano Sandrone is one of the most iconic producers in Barolo, and his is both a well-known and extraordinary story. He started to learn viticulture at the age of 14 or 15. After years of work as a cellarman he depleted his life savings and purchased his first vineyard on the Cannubi hill in 1977, though he could only manage his land on the weekends while he continued to work. He made his first vintage in 1978, in his parents’ garage, and then spent years refining his ideas about how to make a wine of distinction and utmost quality that respected the traditions of Barolo while incorporating new ideas and understanding about viticulture and vinification. He made every vintage at home until 1999, when the winery he constructed in 1998 was ready for use.
Sandrone's wines are sometimes described as straddling the modern and traditional styles in the region: elegant, attractive, and easy to appreciate right from their first years in bottle, but with no less power and structure than traditional Barolos. Along with the extremely low yields in the vineyard and an obsessive attention to training, pruning, and harvesting, Sandrone has a very rational approach in the cellar. This approach, however, is also unique and outside of simple classification: Sandrone subjects his wines to a medium-length maceration period, shorter than traditional, but makes limited use of new oak in the maturation process, which takes place in 500-liter tonneaux, all signs of a more traditional approach in the cellar. The entire range of wines, all limited in production, are jewels of impeccably balanced concentration and precision and the ability to age for long periods of time.
