2012 Barolo Le Vigne

"It was a crazy year," Luca Sandrone told me. We had rain virtually all of May and then again in June. Summer was hot, which was favorable. The vintage really tested us. Yields were naturally high, which required quite a bit of thinning. In my view, the key to 2018 was waiting to harvest." Indeed, harvest started on October 6 and finished on the 21st, which is on the later side by today's standards. In tasting, the 2018 Barolos have the nervous tension and mid-weight structure that is a signature of the better wines. Over the last handful of years, Sandrone has gradually moved towards a style that emphasizes more freshness. It is pretty much impossible to tell how much of that is in play in a clearly freakish vintage like 2018, but in general, the Sandrone Barolos today are more nuanced and vibrant than they were a decade ago. Readers will also want to check out the library releases of the 2012s, both of which are terrific.