2009 Barolo Cannubi Boschis

The Sandrone family's 2015 Barolos are flat-out gorgeous, but that is hardly a surprise given the brilliant track record the Sandrone have built over the last four decades. As always, the Sandrones favor relatively short oak aging of just 18 months for their Le Vigne and Aleste Barolos. The new Vite Talin, on the other hand, spends a total of three years in wood. I have also provided notes for the 2009 Barolos, which Sandrone is re-releasing this year. Luciano Sandrone remains a benchmark for Piedmont. These wines are simply terrific.

I have to admit that I was shocked when Luciano Sandrone told me that his ultimate dream is to make only a single Barolo.He considers his two Barolo bottlings to be at the same quality level but believes that Le Vigne is underrated.And he also noted that the great old classic Barolos were blends of disparate vineyards.Sandrone also has another dream:"to focus on the nebbiolo family and our library wines [he holds back 10% to 12% of his production of nebbiolo wines each vintage, releasing the nebbiolos six years later and the Barolos eight years later], not dolcetto and barbera."Sandrone described 2010 as "a classic year in a Burgundian style," which is pretty much the way I view this vintage.But his daughter Barbara, who handles the commercial side for the estate, so far finds the 2010s to be "rich and chunky."She believes that the 2009s are more Burgundian owing to their elegance.Sandrone noted that 2008, 2009 and 2010 all produced Barolos that are a bit lower in alcohol than previous years.He attributes this to more snow in the winter, which results in more humid soils and better water reserves to get the vines through dry weather during the summer.

The 2009 Sandrone Barolos are fascinating studies in contrasts. I have a slight preference for Le Vigne over the Cannubi Boschis. In challenging vintages, such as 2009, the ability to blend fruit from different sources is a huge advantage, as opposed to pure single-vineyard wines like Cannubi Boschis that remain wedded to the performance of single sites. Sandrone is one of the first producers to bottle, a decision that served him well in maintaining as much freshness as possible in this warm year.