I don’t know. They only separated the Monprivato fairly recently. I have not tried them.
The wines are OK. I mean, they’re good, just not really exceptional. Kind of sterile if that description makes sense. As I said upthread, the style is pretty traditional and stern. Very clean. I don’t know total production numbers but they are not a tiny operation. “All the crus” Yes, this is partly why I couldn’t recall if they made a Villero. Can’t remember all they do or did but it was a lot. I haven’t tried them since the 2010s came out. They were priced pretty fairly.
Thanks for this. I’ve always found Sordo regular bottling to be nicely priced and value for the money but not worth searching out.
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Perfect description.
2020 Crissante Alessandria Monvigliero
I came across the La Morra in May and now found the Monvigliero in Siena.
I just popped and poured this. It’s opening up even more now, but this is all about subtle beauty. Even with the vintage backdrop of fresh, vibrant fruit, there is a laid back quality that draws you into the glass. The nose just perfumes with red cherries, strawberries, raspberries, rose petals, violets, a touch of tapenade, crushed rocks, savory herbs, wild flowers, heady spices, and a bit of savory notes that permeate in the glass. The Full bodied feel is silky, refined, and just flat out sexy with mouthwatering, high acidity and deceptive, yet youthful high tannins. While everyone under the sun is making a Monvigliero these days, few reach its true potential. This bottle absolutely does just that as it brings its own interpretation to the top dogs. Count this as yet another top mark for Crissante Alessandria
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Two very nice wines.
The Lalú was nice and fresh, very approachable and with great Monforte fruit and some French oak. Really likable, but hard to justify the price tag.
The current release from Roddolo was also beautiful, but not typical Roddolo. No barnyard funk or rusticity, but rather elegant and fresh with a surprising nectarine peach on the nose. Apart from that, classic Nebbiolo with good balance and strong tannin presence.
Edit: apparently Lalú ages in Austrian oak… Do they grow the same kind of oak as in France? Most common in Barolo is slavonian oak, and this Lalú had a different character which made me think of of Burgundy.
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Thanks for sharing Marco!
Was curious to hear about Lalu. As for the Roddolo, didn’t have it but sounds like vintage related.
For sure. He also had a notably small crop in 2014 due to being hit by the hailstorms. Only 700 bottles of Barolo were made and no Nebbiolo d’Alba at all. I wish I had bought more Barolo 2014 from other producers, very elegant wines. The vintage got such a bad rep which made me stay away.
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That brutally small.
I think quite a few really suffered in quality as well but for sure, there will be nice exceptions.
I only bought wines from 4 producers myself.
I think you’re correct that Slavonian is more common but it’s not unusual to see Austrain. La Ca Nova (Barbaresco, obvio) is using at least some if not all Austrian. Maybe Oddero too, can’t remember but Austrian is around. I’m not expert here but I believe it is typically tighter grain than Slavonian.
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Stockinger is the principal Austrian oak producer and his barrels are used all over Piemonte and Italy in general
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Right, I’ve seen that around. I thought it was more common to use casks from slavonian oak (Q. rubor). It seems Stockinger uses predominantly austrian and german oak which would be Q. petreae (the same species they use in france).
(the rabbit hole is deep indeed)
Geographically I would expect Austrian wood is more likely closer to Croatian (Slavonia) if the wood comes from continental climate.
Edit: or not
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It seems they grow different species of oak.
“The Stockingers have experimented with many different oak provenances, including French, but for the moment tend to use about equal parts of Austrian (grown mainly around the capital – remember the Vienna Woods?), German, Hungarian and Romanian, Romania having some excellent forests even if not that many excellent coopers yet.”
Sounds like it’s very much in the direction of Slavonian oak.
Definitely Oddero. They buy from Stockinger.
As Keith notes, my impression is that Stockinger is pretty popular in the Piemonte in general.
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Started to question this but then saw your edit (too late to delete!). FWIW, though I haven’t tried the Barolo yet, only the Langhe Nebbiolo and Barbera, I did not get anything that would make me think French oak.
I think it’s R Patraea that grows in Slovakia (the source for much ‘Hungarian’ oak) and Austria. This is also the preferred French oak. Is there a substantial flavor difference between wine aged in French, Austrian and Hungarian oak?
But in that case, how can it be Austrian in the first case or French in the second.
The barrel makes can be located elsewhere but the wood needs to be from the specific country or region.
I believe much of the Slavonian (region in Croatia) oak in at least Italy is refined into barrels in Italy.
For the flavor differences @Mel_Knox might know a thing or two 
Two might be the upper limit these days!
I would say this.You have same same species of oak in France,Germany, Austria, Hungary etc.
There will be differences but probably more differences within each country than between each country.
For example, the oak grown in the Zemplen forest of Hungary is very tight grained because it grows on tufa rock, in an area where they get plenty of snow. Other parts of Hungary see more benign growing conditions and more fertile soil.
Then there are the little differences that add up to barrel flavor…where the wood is dried…How is the wood stacked…what is the climate there…hoiw long is the wood dried…These things add up.Many winemakers say, it’s not the forest, it’s the cooperage. And there is a lot of sense to that.
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