From: Piemonte, Italy
Varietal: Dolcetto

Winemaker Notes. The 2022 Dolcetto encloses all the characteristics of its vintage, harnessing the strength of the vines. In the glass, the wine appears ruby red and compact, with violet hues. Its bouquet reveals aromas of plum, blackberry and marasca cherry, framed by delicate spicy notes. The mouthfeel is sweet and voluptuous. One notices the wine’s great structure and ripe tannins which together create a feeling of volume and density. The wine shows good acidity, which gives it a hint of freshness. Its finale caresses the palate with soft almond notes.

Taste: The nose offers attractive aromas of juicy black fruits, spices and underbrush. The palate is refreshing and mouth-filling with good black plum fruit, raspberry and herbal notes. The finish is fresh and lively with nice, soft tannins giving some structure.

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.