VN (91-93)
From: 2021 Barolo: Changing Times, Changing Wines (Jan 2025)
The 2023 Langhe Nebbiolo is a super-potent wine that will rival (or surpass) wines from more prestigious appellations. Dark fruit, intensely balsamic overtones and huge tannins shape a serious Langhe Nebbiolo that delivers the goods.
- By Antonio Galloni on January 2025
Elio Sandri makes some of the most idiosyncratic wines in all of Piedmont. The decidedly old-school cellar is a throwback to simpler, less prosperous times when things were much more rustic than they are today. Sandri’s firm, massively structured Barolos will delight readers who admire virile, potent wines. At a time when so many Barolos are approachable with minimal cellaring, these remain wines that demand cellaring. The Barolos are technically done with destemmed fruit, but Sandri works with very old equipment that would be considered faulty by today’s standards. As a result, a fair amount of stems and jacks make it into the fermentation vats, about 30% by Sandri’s estimate. Winemaking is decidedly minimalistic. Fermentations take 18-30 days in cement, without submerged cap maceration. The wines are pressed and left on the lees until the following March, when they are racked into cask for anywhere from 18 months for lower acid vintages like 2015 to six years for tannic vintages such as 2013. There is no racking during élevage. “A great Barolista is not a good oenologist who makes wine, because a good oenologist can always make a good wine, but rather someone who listens to Nebbiolo and makes wine according to what the vintage provides. If you can do that, then you are a great interpreter,” Sandri explains. “All the great masters of Barolo had this approach. They did not follow the rules of oenology.”
