2018 Olek Bondonio 'Roncagliette' Barbaresco, Piedmont, ITALY. 750ml
Practicing Biodynamic & Certified Organic. 100% Nebbiolo. Nebbiolo made from grapes grown in Olek’s front yard, a small parcel his family planted around fifty years ago in one of Barbaresco’s most famous crus, Roncagliette. This is the same vineyard that Olek’s close neighbor, Gaja, bottles under the Sori Tildin cru which sells for $500+/btl upon release. Heavy blue clay atop limestone at 350 meters. The site sits at the top of a hill shaped in an ampitheatre. It’s quite windy and further from the river so it’s a dry, warm microclimate that is fully exposed to the south with firm clay-limestone soils which have a lot of compacted sandy soil that’s filled with minerals like magnesium (which gives a saltiness to the wine) that lend the Nebbiolo from here both power and finesse. Hand-harvested, basket-pressed, spontaneously fermented and macerated on the skins for two months (with a submerged cap) in concrete before being pressed off to old botti (Slavonian- Gamba and Austrian- Stockinger) for a couple of years. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. This is old-school Nebbiolo with a natural winemaker’s sensibilities. A wine of incredible complexity, power and poise where every little thing is perfectly in place.
