Luciano Sandrone - Barolo 'Aleste' DOCG - 2015

The name of the wine may have changed, but Sandrone’s famous single Cru Barolo is still, and will always be, 100% Cannubi Boschis—the Barolo vineyard so synonymous with this grower. To be clear, Boschis is a particular terroir or vineyard area within the Cannubi hill. The Boschis subzone sits near the northern end, and is located directly across from the Sandrone cellars. This Cru, of which Sandrone farm 1.9-hectares of 37-year-old vines, has a particularly good exposure to the south and south-east in a small amphitheater or “conca” that helps hold warmth in the early morning. Its soils are calcareous (chalky) clay with some sand, and there is consequently excellent drainage. Highlighting the uniqueness of the wines from this terroir compared to the rest of the Cannubi hill, Alessandro Masnaghetti [L’Enciclopedia delle Grandi Vigne del Barolo] writes, “The wines, in general, have good body, much elegance, and more polished tannins than other Cannubi wines.” The winemaking for Aleste is a facsimile of the wine above: wild yeast fermentation, de-stemming with a very high percentage of whole berries and a small percentage of whole bunches, ageing in mostly used 500 litre French oak casks (only 20% new) and bottling without filtration after 18 months. As Galloni writes below, this is a stunner—although, I have to say, no more stunning than the 2015 le Vigne. It is certainly more seductive and hedonistic now, but that’s always the case. Again, the notes below give you more than enough descriptors. “Sandrone's 2015 Barolo Aleste is a total stunner. Succulent dark cherry, plum, mocha, lavender and spice are all beautifully framed by ripe, silky tannins. Creamy, resonant and super-expressive, the 2015 Aleste hits all the right notes. Next to Le Vigne, Aleste is more typical of what readers might expect from a warm year. It is a gorgeous Barolo from the Sandrone family.” 96 points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous “There is more purple and black fruit in the 2015 Barolo Aleste compared to past vintages from Luciano Sandrone and also fewer of those floral accents that characterize the Cannubi Boschis where this fruit comes from. All the same, the bouquet comes off equally as intense and as generous as ever, if not more so. This wine also seems ready from an aromatic point of view, even if it needs some extra time to reverberate in the mouth. It is compact and firm, with good, meaty fruit, and it's refreshingly expansive in scope.” 95 Points, Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate, Issue 243