Luciano Sandrone Nebbiolo d’Alba ‘Valmaggiore’ 2020

The Sandrone family farms a continuous, three-hectare vineyard in the Valmaggiore area of the Roero which they planted in the early 1990s. Now that Roero is rising in prominence, we can start to truly recognise what a pioneer Luciano Sandrone has been in the region. At a time when nobody was talking about this area, Luciano recognised itspotential (having worked with parcels of fruit during his time as cellarmaster of Marchesi di Barolo).

Valmaggiore is planted to 8,000 vines per hectare over the precipitous site (50% gradient in places). The soil here is almost entirely of pure sand from shallow sea and beach deposits, littered with fossilised crustaceans. This soil gifts a remarkably perfumed and elegant expression of Nebbiolo, completely different from the more powerful style of wine produced in the clay-rich soils of Barolo and Barbaresco. Thevineyard is farmed meticulously and requires strict sorting to reach the level of purity and intensity we see in the wine today. The wine is fermented and aged for up to 12 months in old French demi-muids.