2011 Barolo Cannubi Boschis

This is a set of gorgeous wines from the Sandrone family. Once again, I was so impressed with Le Vigne, a Barolo that sometimes flies under the radar here. Sandrone fans will not want to miss the latest release of the Vite Talin, the newest addition to the range. That wine is sourced from vineyards planted with a heavily virused Nebbiolo clone that produces unnaturally low yields and a Barolo of tremendous character. Lastly, I also had a chance to taste the 2011 Barolos from Sandrone's library release program. Sandrone is now a historic estate, but the wines keep getting better and more finessed, a testatement to the drive for perfection that runs through every aspect of this exemplary winery. For Luciano Sandrone, the key to dealing with 2017 was lowering temperatures in fermentation, working with shorter fermentations and bottling on the early side, something that has been the norm here for some time. "The key differentiator of 2017 versus years like 2011 and 2003 is that temperatures cooled off in the evening," Sandrone explained.

Luciano Sandrone's 2011 Barolos are just as strong as they were a few months ago, but I was not expecting to see a huge change given that Sandrone bottles earlier than most and the wines I tasted over the summer had already been in bottle for a few months. The main evolutions here over the last few years have been a move towards picking a little earlier than normal and an overall less invasive approach to farming that includes leaving a little more crop on the vine. All of that has led to Barolos that capture more freshness and verve than was the case a decade ago. As always, the Barolos are aged in 500 liter French oak barrels, where they spend 18 months prior to being bottled. Sandrone fans will also want to be on the lookout for bottles from the estate's growing library program released ten years after the vintage.

Luciano and Luca Sandrone's 2011 Barolos are gorgeous. They also reflect some of the important shifts taking place in Piedmont; namely keeping green harvests from being excessive, leaving more leaf cover and picking a little earlier. For a few years now Sandrone has been among the first to bottle, preferring to give the wines less time in barrel, but more time in bottle before release in order to preserve freshness.