For a very long time on wine boards, a rather mild, but nonetheless real, controversy, or at least mystery, has surrounded Luciano Sandrone, his wines and his winemaking techniques. Many arch-traditionalists exile him willy-nilly to the modernist camp, assuming that, because he experimented with barrique at an earlier point, he must be one of the “Barolo Boys”, and it appears that they often do so without bothering to taste the wines. I, for one, have never believed that, nor do the wines themselves bear that out (John Gilman’s absurd posturing about oak in the wines to the contrary notwithstanding). What Sandrone set out to do, and as far as I am concerned, has succeeded fabulously in doing, is improving upon the traditional Piemontese techniques and tightly controlling the winemaking process, not to leave his own terroir-obliterating signature on the wines, but rather, to keep the wines from derailing during the winemaking process…in sum, to deliver the very best wines that he can. I have a taste for traditionalist Nebbiolo winemaking, and my cellar is dominated by traditionally made Barolo and Barbaresco. For me, that includes the wines of Gaja, and the wines of Sandrone. It seems to me that only traditionalist religious fanaticism would exclude the wines in the face of the decades of high praise heaped upon both. (It is true that dyed-in-the-wool modernists like Clerico, Scavino and Altare also enjoy some impressive numbers from time to time, but none of their wines tasted blind are likely to pass as traditional.)
One thing that I would note: something seemed to go wrong at Sandrone sometime during the period 1997-2000. (I did not buy or taste Sandrone’s wines for the 1991-1995 vintages, so I suppose that it is possible that the problem at the winery spans as long as 1991-2000, but the 1996 wines suggest otherwise.) It could have been that Sandrone bought a bunch of new oak tonneaux (that seemed to be a curse at the Aldo Conterno winery right after Aldo’s boys took over the reins for a few years, with many suspecting them of having become closet hard-core, barrique-rolling modernists), or it could have been tinkering with technique, but in any event, in the new millennium, Sandrone’s Baroli, the Cannubi Boschis in particular, have been better than ever. The reviewer numbers bear that out: since the 2000 vintage, only in the hot-weather vintages of 2003 and 2009 did the Sandrone Cannubi fail to garner 95s or better from both Steve Tanzer and Antonio Galloni, with WS scores also in line. Interestingly, the wines of the last decade also belie the notion that Sandrone’s wines, like those of the modernists, always come out of the gate open for business, like his 1990s did to some extent. For those looking for outstanding Barolo who are pissed at price increases seen at addresses like Mauro Mascarello’s and Roberto Conterno’s, you might want to backfill with some Sandrone.
With that preamble, direct from the Sandrone website, with a transparency that I have not seen anywhere else, here is what REALLY goes on there:
"Winemaking timeline
This section is arranged as an approximate and general timeline to give a sense of how the process unfolds over the harvest and winemaking for Barolo. Picking begins with “Day 1” and continues to release at month 48.
Dolcetto, Barbera and Valmaggiore see the same process and techniques, but some process times are shorter – differences are described at the end of the section.
Ground was broken for the Sandrone winery building in 1998, and the first vintage completely vinified in the building was the 1999. It was designed from the ground up based on Luciano’s specific winemaking needs. Unlike wineries that have grown and expanded from a garage in a contadino’s home, this one was built with specific business and viticultural goals in mind. The winery is built into the hillside so as to work with gravity as much as is possible and is designed to be clean, comfortable, safe and efficient.
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Pre-harvest
As harvest approaches, the grapes are continually monitored for ripeness on a varietal-by-varietal and vineyard-by-vineyard basis. Dolcetto typically is the first to ripen, then Barbera, then Nebbiolo. Every day, Luca visits a few vineyards to collect individual berry samples for analysis, as well as tasting the berries in each vineyard. A few days before the harvest begins in earnest, a few crates of Dolcetto grapes are picked and a “pied de cuvée” is made – essentially, a small tank to encourage the dominant yeast strain to emerge for the vintage. Only natural wild yeasts are used! This small tank will sit in the corner of the winery and begin to ferment after a day or two, thus providing a ready source of yeast for the remainder of the harvest. (The pied de cuvée is not added directly to the must.) The yeasts, as they reproduce, spread spores all over the fermentation room. As soon as they find sugar (such as the grape must) they will begin the fermentation reaction.
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Day 1
Picking. When a vineyard or part of vineyard is deemed ready, by consultation between Luciano, Luca and Mario (their laboratory and analytics partner), a crew is sent out. Generally a single tractor-load is picked per day (240 picking crates of about 22 kg each), which corresponds to a 60-hl tank of must after destemming and crush.Grapes are only hand-harvested at Sandrone, and a thorough examination of each bunch is made before placing the bunch in the picking basket. Damaged, dried, underripe or bruised berries are individually clipped off so that the fruit that is laid into the picking crates is clean, healthy and fully mature. It is a laborious process that Luciano has determined to be among the single most important things to guarantee quality in the winemaking process. In a vineyard that may have seen even just a brief hailstorm, as much as 40-50% of the fruit may be dropped to the ground during the harvest (this is in addition to any green harvest that may have been done during the growing season).
As soon as the tractor is full, the grapes are driven to the winery, unloaded at the second-level crush pad onto a sorting table, completely destemmed and lightly crushed. The winery is built into the side of a gently sloping hill so as to use gravity where possible to help move the must. As the fruit has been examined and cleaned in the vineyard, there is rarely much to remove on the sorting table, but a second visual check of the bunches on the sorting table is just another way to attain the best possible quality for the wine.
The must descends to the main level fermentation room. Before it is poured into one of the ten 60 hl temperature-controlled fermentation tanks, the must goes through a temperature-exchange unit and is gently warmed to 30°C on its way to the tank. While this may seem counter-intuitive, Luciano has found that a warm maceration for 24-36 hours before fermentation begins extracts the most delicate and subtle aromas and flavors. To keep the must from immediately launching into fermentation, Luciano completely removes all the oxygen in the tank by vigorously bubbling compressed CO2 through the must; effectively allowing the warm maceration to occur under anaerobic conditions. Thus the must sits, warm, for about 24-36 hours before oxygen penetrates to the must and yeast cells begin the fermentation.
Every piece of equipment that touches grapes, must or wine is thoroughly cleaned after each use. Cleaning the equipment on the crush pad, for example, takes one person 6 hours of hard work and must be done after each tractor load of grapes comes in. Every individual picking basket is cleaned in a high-pressure hot water machine (it looks like a restaurant dishwashing machine) after each use so that each lot of grapes that comes into the winery remains thoroughly separate.
During a crowded harvest, when different vineyards ripen at the same time, a tractor-load of grapes, sometimes two, will come in each day. Every time, each individual piece of equipment is thoroughly cleaned before it goes out into the field or used for the crush of the next load. Lots of wineries talk about cleanliness. Here, you could eat ravioli off the crush pad floor.
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Day 2
Fermentation starts. Once fermentation commences, the temperature of the grape must shoots up naturally and must be brought under control. At this point the automated temperature controls are turned on, the must cooled down and the vats are maintained between 23-24°C for the rest of the maceration. This is a very delicate time, as the must will start fermenting almost instantly once oxygen penetrates through the CO2 to the surface of the must. Constant attention is needed when the must starts to ferment and to bring the temperature down immediately. An unattended tank might shoot up to 35°C and literally bubble over in 10 minutes!
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Day 3
Depending on the qualities of the must, Luciano will use pump-overs (rimontaggio), déléstage and gentle punch-downs to extract the proper levels of flavors and aromas from the must in a measured and careful way. Macerations range from 3-5 days for Dolcetto to 9-14 for Nebbiolo. These values fall somewhere between traditional (long) and modern (short) maceration times and allow for a full extraction of tannins, color, aromas and flavors from the fruit. Daily tasting and lab analysis is used to determine how the must is progressing on its journey into wine.
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Day 4
The liquid has achieved a medium color and is beginning to smell of roses and fresh fruits. The CO2 coming off the tanks is incredible – inside the tightly buttoned up fermentation room, it is hard to breathe from the lack of oxygen. Regular breathing breaks are needed for all the staff. During the height of the harvest, the work ends at 9 or 10 pm, and Luicano is back in the winery by 5am at the latest. Sometimes he will come down in the middle of the night if sleep escapes him.
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Day 7
The fermentation is on full power, carefully controlled at 23-24°C, and the must is gently mixed with regular pump-overs. The must is beginning to smell and taste like wine – though still quite sweet - and regular tastings of the juice are conducted. Mario comes by every evening to pick up samples of all the individual wines for analysis – analytical lab results are on Luciano’s desk before 8 the next morning. It is possible to detect alcohol on the tongue by this point. The sheer amount of CO2 being produced by the yeast cells makes breathing difficult in the fermentation room. Also, every day or two a new load of grapes comes in and the whole crush repeats itself.
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Day 14
At some point between 10 and 14 days maceration for the Barolo, the must has reached sufficient levels of extract, phenols and acid, and so the liquid is separated off the solids and pumped into smaller 30 Hl tanks to finish fermentation at a lower temperature of 21-22°C. Each lot is kept separate at all times until final assemblaggio of the wine before bottling. Fermentation may take an additional 15-20 days to finish in the smaller tanks.
After separation of the liquid, the solids are shoveled out of the fermentation tank into old-style wooden basket presses (this involves climbing into the tank to get everything out). The solids are given two pressings: the liquid from the first, very light (80 bar), pressing is vinified separately and a part is sometimes blended back into the finished wine, while the second, harder pressing (200 bar) is kept completely separate and always sold off in bulk. A small amount of first press wine may be blended into the final wine if more tannins and structure are desired in the final mix; the rest is sold in bulk. The pomace is sold to the grappa maker Marolo in Alba. The press baskets are thoroughly cleaned after each use.
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Week 3
The wine continues to ferment in the smaller tanks at 21-22°C. As the sugar levels are decreasing rapidly toward full dryness during this time, the fermentation is slowing. If required, the wine will get some oxygenation, via a pump-over, to help the yeast ferment the remaining sugars completely.
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Week 4
Once the wine is fully dry the tank is topped up, completely sealed off from oxygen and allowed to rest for several days to begin clarifying. (Note: during fermentation, wine requires oxygen. After fermentation has finished, oxygen is the enemy, and the wine must be protected from oxidation.) Over the next week or two, the wine will drop the coarsest sediment and yeast cells.
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Week 6
The wine continues to clarify in steel tank, sealed off from oxygen contact. Wines are racked off the lees in steel tank once or twice before being sent to the first ageing cellar at about month 2.
The winemaking processes used up to this point are generally the same for all the wines made at Sandrone. Variation is minimal – only the maceration time is different for the different wines. Once the wine enters the ageing cellars at about month 2 of the process, there are significant differences in terms of the type and length of time in cask or tank. Please note: What follows is the path taken by the two Barolo. At the end of this description, details are given of the different aging times used for the Valmaggiore, Barbera and Dolcetto.
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Month 2
The ageing cellars underneath the winery are divided into two separate temperature and humidity-controlled areas. Each has independent controls and backups to maintain proper cellar temperature and humidity.
Malolactic fermentation occurs in the first ageing cellar. As malolactic fermentation simply requires warmer temperatures to proceed naturally (Luciano never adds enzymes), the first cellar is kept warmer than the second for the first few months after the harvest.
Malolactic fermentation is a second, naturally-occurring bacterial fermentation (as opposed to the alcoholic fermentation, which is yeast-based) that all red wines at Sandrone undergo. It requires only a bit of warmth to get it started from bacteria that occur naturally in the vineyard (no enzymes or selected bacteria are added at Sandrone). In this second fermentation, the malic acids from the grapes are transformed into lactic acid. Malic acid is a bright, tangy green-apple acid that we want to transform for rich, structured red wines (in fact, almost all red wines go through malolactic fermentation). Lactic acid lends the wine far more complexity and creaminess (it is the same acid as is in milk). Tasting a red wine before it goes through malolactic fermentation can be a difficult and unpleasant experience: the wine is green, tart and harsh.
Inside the first ageing cellar, the wines are placed in vats of 500 liters called tonneaux. Made from French oak, these give a less aggressive oak treatment and more nuanced taste to the wine than the smaller barrique beloved by modernists (225 liter barriques are not used at Sandrone except for excess wine that won’t completely fill a tonneaux). Tonneaux are used for 4-5 passages, so the wines see about 20-25% new oak each vintage. Tonneaux come from several different producers but all are ordered with light or no interior toast.
The cellar is kept warm at about 18-20°C and malolactic fermentation begins naturally, inside the oak tonneaux.
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Month 6
Malolactic ended around month 4 and the cellar temperature has been dropped back to 12°C. Every few weeks the tonneaux are topped up to minimize air contact. The wine used to top up is always the same as what is in the tonneaux. A topping-up supply is kept in 50-liter glass damijans.
For the first few months after the Malolactic fermentation has finished, the lees are stirred every few weeks to add richness and complexity. The last stirring is at the beginning of the summer; after this the wine is left to settle and clarify.
Just before being moved to the second ageing cellar (next section), the wines are racked. This involves transferring them from one tonneaux to a clean one, to separate the slowly clarifying liquid from the lees and solids that continue to settle out.
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Month 9
Around this time, just before the next harvest, the tonneaux are moved from the first ageing cellar to the second, to make place for the new wine that will come in during the approaching harvest. The tonneaux are lifted with the “muletto,” an electric hand-operated forklift. They are carefully moved over to and stacked in the second ageing cellar where they will remain until they are ready to be assembled and bottled. Over the next few months, a second racking will be done to the Barolo to further separate the clarifying wine off the solids that have precipitated out.
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Month 24
By this point, each of the individual tonneaux has been tasted numerous times during its development and the ones that will be used for the final assembly of the wine have been identified. Any tonneaux that don’t make the quality cut or are of excess quantity are sold in bulk (remember, Le Vigne is made from 4 separate vineyard plots; sometimes one vineyard will produce more than is needed for the final assembly).
Once the required 24 months of cask ageing have been met, the wine is racked to steel tanks.
By law, wine to be bottled as Barolo must be aged in cask for at least 24 months. Generally, Luciano believes 24 months to be sufficient and transfers the wine from tonneaux to steel tank once it has reached the required cask ageing time. In the early years while he worked for other wineries, he experimented with different ageing times but now consistently limits cask time to 24 months. Luciano wants the winemaking techniques used to be as consistent as possible from year to year so as to make the effect of the winemaking technique less apparent. He believes that this leads to a more honest representation of the wine’s inherent qualities from year to year. The wine will better reflect individual terroirs and vintages when the techniques used in the cellar are broadly consistent.
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Month 30
The wine is kept a few months in steel tank to knit and meld together completely, and just before bottling the various tanks are completely mixed together in the enormous purpose-built fiberglass tank that is almost 8 meters tall. (This tank is large enough to hold the entire production of any given wine at one time, so as to avoid bottling tank-by-tank.) Bottling is done in one pass so all bottles are identical from the first to the last. Wine is bottled without filtration*. The wine is bottled unlabeled and brought to the warehouse cellar, where the Barolo remains for approximately 18 months. (Labels are not applied at this time, as Luciano wants clean, spotless labels to go on just before shipping.)
*Dolcetto – and only Dolcetto – receives a light filtration before bottling as it has the least time to settle and clarify in the tanks (only about 6 months). All the other wines clarify by gravity only and are bottled without fining or filtration.
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Month 48
By law, Barolo may not be released until the 3rd calendar year after tthe vintage. For example, 2004 was released in 2008. Some producers release their wines January 1st,but Luciano waits for the full 4 years (the ancient, more traditional version of the law) before releasing the Barolo in September. Release date for all new wines at Sandrone is the beginning of September
Wines are labeled to order: as each country has different labeling requirements, custom back labels are printed for each labeling run. Luciano insists on perfectly clean bottles going into the boxes. The wine is boxed and palleted for each importer or distributor, and shipped via temperature-controlled containers.
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Differences between Barolo and Valmaggiore, Barbera, Dolcetto
Barolo:
Fermentation on the skins: 8-14 days
Time in Tonneaux: 2 years (20-25% new)
Time in Bottle: 18 months
Filtration: none
Released: 4 years after the vintage.
Valmaggiore:
Fermentation on the skins: 6-10 days
Time in Tonneaux: 1 year (0% new, all used wood)
Time in Bottle: 7-10 months
Filtration: none
Released: 2 years after the vintage.
Barbera:
Fermentation on the skins: 5-8 days
Time in Tonneaux: 1 year (50% new)
Time in Bottle: 7-10 months
Filtration: none
Released: 2 years after the vintage.
Dolcetto:
Fermentation on the skins: 4-6 days
Time in Tank: 6 months. No wood casks are used for Dolcetto; it is aged in steel tank only. Malolactic fermentation is also in steel. This perfectly suits a wine that is designed for freshness and early drinking.
Time in Bottle: 3-5 months
Filtration: light
Released: 1 year after the vintage."
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