Sandrone Barolo Le Vigne (1.5 Liter Magnum) 2012
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Wine &
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A hint of oak lends this a spicy component, along with cherry, licorice and tar flavors. Racy and bright, with fine intensity and a long, tightly wound finish that seems to go on forever. Shows beautiful purity and class. Best from 2020 through 2036.
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James Suckling
Purity of fruit and balance here is very impressive. Firm and very silky tannins with a long, long finish that gives the wine amazing depth and intensity. Love the spicy and dense fruit character at the end of the palate.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Luciano Sandrone 2012 Barolo le Vigne shows the trademark ripeness that I so often identify in this historic product. The bouquet is round and plush with thick layers of dark cherry marmalade, blackberry preserves and dark currant. Beyond those apparent fruit aromas, Le Vigne offers dark spice and licorice with a beautiful menthol signature on the finish. The wine's natural structure is padded by soft tannins and lush fruit consistency. In all, this important wine is less vibrant and distinctive compared to other excellent vintages such as 2008 and 2010.
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Wine & Spirits
Sandrone selects fruit from four crus to make Le Vigne, blending a wine with flavors of macerated cherries and sweet vanilla, laden with notes of black spice, menthol and tobacco. The wine’s texture is smooth, its tannins having been polished during the two years it rested in 500-liter French oak barrels. Notes of lavender and orange zest brighten the darker fruit flavors as the wine evolves over several hours. The fruit and spice flavors linger vibrantly on the finish.
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Luciano Sandrone is one of the most iconic producers in Barolo, and his is both a well known and extraordinary story. He started to learn viticulture at the age of 14 or 15, and after years of work as a cellarman he depleted his life savings and purchased his first vineyard on the Cannubi hill in 1977, though he could only manage his land on the weekends while he continued to work. He made his first vintage in 1978, in the garage of his parents, and then spent years refining his ideas about how to make a wine of distinction and utmost quality that respected the traditions of Barolo while incorporating new ideas and understanding about viticulture and vinification. He made every vintage until 1999 at home, until the winery he constructed in 1998 was ready for use.
Sandrone's wines are sometimes described as straddling the modern and traditional styles in the region: elegant, attractive and easy to appreciate right from their first years in bottle, but with no less power and structure than traditional Barolos. Along with the extremely low yields in the vineyard and an obsessive attention to training, pruning and harvesting, Sandrone has a very rational approach in the cellar. This approach, however, is also unique and outside of simple classification: Sandrone subjects his wines to medium-length maceration period, shorter than traditional, but makes limited use of new oak in the maturation process, which takes place in 500 liter tonneaux, all signs of a more traditional approach in the cellar. The entire range of wines, all limited in production, are jewels of impeccably balanced concentration and precision, and the ability to age for long periods of time.