{"product_id":"luciano-sandrone-dolcetto-dalba-2024","title":"Luciano Sandrone Dolcetto d'Alba 2024","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Land\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSandrone's Dolcetto is not grown on leftover ground. All eleven parcels sit inside the Barolo DOCG zone, on slopes that could legally be planted to Nebbiolo and sold for several times the price. The named sites include Rivassi and Crosia in Barolo, Castelletto in Monforte d'Alba, Cascina Pe Mol and Ravera in Novello, and Rocche di San Nicola. The family selects for what they call white soils, pale ground heavy in limestone and silt with a thin intrusion of sand, on steep slopes mostly between 350 and 400 meters. Limestone and elevation are what keep Dolcetto, a variety that ripens early and loses acid fast, from going flat and jammy. The name means little sweet one, which describes the grape, not the wine, which is dry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLuciano Sandrone Dolcetto d'Alba 2024 is 100% Dolcetto, picked September 17 to 24. The eleven parcels are vinified separately. Fruit is destemmed and crushed, then given a gentle warm maceration of roughly a day under CO2 before indigenous yeasts take over 24 to 36 hours later. Fermentation runs about 14 days in open-topped steel tanks with five to nine days of skin contact, malolactic follows, and the lots are then blended in the Langhe assemblage tradition and held three months in bottle. No oak. Alcohol is 12.5%. The 2024 season was difficult: a dry start, late-March rain, mixed flowering, then a cool stretch, July and August heat, September rain and a variable October. Sandrone deliberately extracted less this year, aiming at transparency rather than density. Dark purple, with red and black fruit, blueberry, violet and a mineral edge, ripe but quiet tannin, and fresh acidity carrying a long finish.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe People\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom 1978 through 1997, every bottle Luciano Sandrone made came out of his parents' garage. The purpose-built winery on the edge of Barolo village opened in 1998, twenty years after the first vintage, and the timing tells you something about how the family spends money: vineyards first, buildings last. That cellar is also what makes this wine possible. Fermenting eleven small Dolcetto parcels separately and blending at the end requires tank space nobody keeps in a garage, and it is a real expense to incur on the least expensive wine in the range. Barbara Sandrone, Luciano's daughter, has run winery operations since 1989 and handles distribution and visitors; her uncle Luca works the technical side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDolcetto is the Piedmontese answer to a weeknight. Serve it slightly cool with a salumi board of soppressata and mortadella, where the acidity resets the palate between slices. Grilled sausage with braised lentils and a hit of red wine vinegar matches the dark fruit and the earth underneath it. A mushroom and fontina pizza, or a plate of gnocchi with sage butter, both work because the tannin stays low enough not to compete. This is the bottle you keep two of, for the nights you did not plan dinner.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Giuliana","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67801295585503,"sku":null,"price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/PA010449.jpg?v=1790911200","url":"https:\/\/denverwinemerchant.com\/products\/luciano-sandrone-dolcetto-dalba-2024","provider":"Denver Wine Merchant","version":"1.0","type":"link"}