1998 Barolo Cannubi Boschis

1998 has always been an interesting vintage for Barolo. Caught between the more hyped 1996 and 1997 on one end, and 2000 and 2001 on the other, the 1998s have often been overlooked. It also didn't help that the wines were first released during a period global economic malaise. While 1998 is not a truly iconic, legendary vintage, these Barolos are great choices for medium-term drinking as a number of wines are entering their early maturity, making them great choices for readers who are cellaring wines from Piedmont's sturdier vintages such as 1996, 1999 and 2001.

Piedmont experienced mostly warm weather in 1998 with spells of drought, though nowhere near the extremes seen in 1997. The wines have always been perfumed and accessible, with an attractive softness to the fruit. Even better, the vast majority of the wines have never shut down to the extent that wines from cooler vintages often do. The 1998s are extremely consistent across the board, and that level of outstanding quality may very well end up being the vintage's strongest attribute. As is typically the case, the Barolos of La Morra and Barolo are the most forward, while those of Serralunga are the freshest. Most of these wines were from my cellar, purchased and cellared since release, although I tasted a few of the wines a second time with the producers.

From his first vintage in 1978 Luciano Sandrone set out to make a more approachable and drinkable Barolo. No one has managed to bridge tradition and innovation as brilliantly as Sandrone, rendering pointless any of the typical arguments in favor of one winemaking philosophy versus the other. Over the years Sandrone has turned out a stunning group of wines, often reaching stratospheric heights. Although Sandrone's wines are accessible when young, they also age beautifully as is demonstrated by the wines from the 1980s. Yet as magical as the older wines can be, Sandrone believes his recent releases are even better, saying “today we know so much more about how to work in the vineyards and in the cellar.” I consider Luciano Sandrone's Cannubi Boschis to be one of a handful of benchmark wines for the region, well worth the effort of finding and cellaring.

Sandrone is one the most meticulous producers I have ever met. He tends to his vineyards and winery with extraordinary passion and precision. Sandrone's plots are in the Cannubi Boschis (also known as Monghisolfo) vineyard, a seven hectare stretch that lies on the same hillside as Cannubi. As I wrote in Issue 2, the estate's holdings are divided into three sub-plots which have slightly different characteristics, and are therefore harvested and vinified separately. The mostly south-facing plots and this producer's preference for very low yields result in rich, concentrated wines that represent contemporary Barolo at its very best.

In hot vintages, Sandrone's Barolo drinks well upon release, while in fresher vintages this Barolo seems to start hitting its stride around age 10. In general, I find the wines from the more classic vintages show greater complexity in both the aromas and flavors, as well as possessing more length, freshness, and better overall balance. One of the interesting aspects of doing a vertical like this is observing which wines keep the attention of tasters more than others. While wines like the 1997 and 2000 are no doubt beautiful, they are also wines of less complexity that can be understood immediately, with a minimum of fuss. The 1996, 1999, and 2001 are great wines because they show much more precision and delineation in the flavors, along with significant evolution in the glass, which invites you to come back to the wines time and again. Sandrone adds “I tend to prefer the fresher, classic vintages because the wines have much more typicity of Nebbiolo, although I do prefer my 1990 to the 1989.”

In his spacious new vinification facility outside the town of Barolo, Sandrone racks his nebbiolo off its skins very quickly after the fermentation in vertical steel tanks has finished, and the wines go into barrel by gravity. (Incidentally, Sandrone told me he has never used rotofermenters, as he finds this approach "too technological, too fast.") Although Sandrone employs barriques for his barbera and basic nebbiolo, the Barolos are aged mostly in 400- to 500-liter French oak barrels, about 20% of which are new each year, with barriques used only for experimentation or to store wine needed to top the larger barrels.Sandrone told me that 2000 featured hot summer weather, then warm nighttime temperatures in the weeks leading up to the harvest. The result, he said, was very ripe, low-acid wines with smooth tannins and high alcohol (in the 14.8% range, higher than that of '99 and '98), a bit like the '97s. In contrast, 1998 saw longer, slower ripening, thanks to more variation between daytime and nighttime temperatures, and Sandrone feels that these wines likewise will take a long time to mature. "Nineteen ninety-nine," Sandrone went on, "is a strong vintage but a bit different from the rest of the recent years: very red fruit in style, very pinot-like, very Burgundian. My '98s are more traditional."Interestingly, Sandrone is seriously considering bucking the trend toward vineyard-designated bottlings and going back to offering just one Barolo. "It's not an economic issue," he explained. "It's just that the old tradition was to assemble numerous parcels. Also, today people know and ask for our Cannubi Boschis, but we don't produce enough of this wine to satisfy demand. We're forced to raise the price of Cannubi so that we have enough to go around. Anyway, this is just an idea now: our most important aim would be to achieve more complex wines. For example, I believe that Cannubi would complete Le Vigne."