1990 Barolo Cannubi Boschis

This wine was tasted over dinner at Eleven Madison Park during the Charity Dinner of La Festa Del Barolo 2013.

Luciano Sandrone was still working full time at Marchesi di Barolo when he made his fabulous 1989 Barolo Cannubi Boschis. In the spring of 1990 Sandrone left the Marchesi in order to devote all of his energy to his own estate, and the rest, as they say, is history. Sandrone's Barolos were built on elegance from the outset. Although Sandrone was clearly one of the early leaders of the modern school, his wines avoided the excesses of the mid and late 1990s. These meticulously hand-crafted, artisan Barolos were vinified in steel and cement with manual pumpovers and punchdowns, then racked into 500-liter tonneaux where the wines underwent malolactic fermentation and subsequent aging. I can't think of another property where the stylistic shift from somewhat traditional to decidedly contemporary is as noticeable within such a short period of time as it is here between 1989 and 1990. While the 1989 Cannubi Boschis (and the Barolos that preceded it) still had a foot in the past, the 1990 is clearly a forward-looking wine. Much of that is attributable to the ripeness of the 1990 vintage and the introduction of new French oak barrels from the cooper Vicard that year. I tasted the 1990 Barolo Le Vigne and Barolo Cannubi Boschis at the estate, and have had the 1989 and 1990 Barolo Cannubi Boschis from a number of cellars, including mine and that of Robert Parker, over the course of the last few months.

This incredible dinner was organized around two themes; an in-depth look at several bottlings of the 1964 Dom Pérignon and a survey of Bruno Giacosa’s 1989s and 1990s, with a few bottles added for further perspective. Executive Chef Mark Ladner prepared a fabulous menu to go with our wines.

Tasted over lunch at Del Posto Ristorante in New York City, December 2007.

This wine was tasted at Daniel during a dinner that was auctioned at the Jackson Hole Wine Auction.

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.”