Many of the wines cited in this thread are very good. That is a separate point than saying there is herd mentality in point clusters.
John, I’m not suggesting Sandrone is as modern as Voerzio, but I’ve not loved the older vintages of Sandrone that I’ve had, and found the oak to be a bit obtrusive. I’ve also not seen friends be terribly excited by people bringing older Sandrone (not that I have), but perhaps that’s the crowd I run in. There was a bottle of older Sandrone at the one Festa dinner I went to, and mostly the view was “this is fine, but now what I want from my Barolo”. So it’s not that it’s a bad wine, but that I don’t expect it to trade at a premium given what collectors want from Barolo.
As for Scavino, I wasn’t all that impressed by the lineup of 15s I tried, but YMMV. I will acknowledge there may be some confirmation bias there; I didn’t have them blind.
I find aggregate CT scores to be useless. Last week I had the 14 Mugnier Fuees, which is easily one of the best bottles of Burgundy I’ve had this year. It was blind, and I thought I thought it was his Amoureuses because it was such a spectacular bottle. It’s currently at 91.7 on CT. That doesn’t mean the community is wrong - maybe I just really like Mugnier much more than other people do (that’s likely true - I love Mugnier). But then what does the aggregate score mean? Not much! Of course, the prices of Mugnier’s Fuees seem to suggest I’m far from alone, yet the score suggests it’s not much more than a solid Burgundy.
Once you realize Neal Martin gave it a 92, it starts to make more sense. (Neal also called it oaky on the palate and less complex than the Barthod Fuees, which…let’s just say, I suspect he’d write a different review today.)
Of course, my favorite example is the 2003 Sorrel le Greal. Currently at 94.4 points on CT. Personally? You’d quite literally have to pay me to drink it, and I speak from experience - I poured most of it out because no one wanted to drink any. 
OK. The wording of your post seemed to suggest that he was in the Voerzio-Scavino part of the spectrum.
Personally, I’ve never been wowed by a Sandrone, but I haven’t really sought them out (or wanted to pay up), so I haven’t had a whole lot of them. I’ve wondered if I just don’t appreciate finesse.
At Scavino, I think Elisa is taking the wines back toward a more traditional style. I can’t remember if it was the '15s or '16s I tasted back in the winter – guess it must have been the '16s – and I thought they were more transparent and precise than other recent vintages. I was very enamored of the Scavino wines in the 90s, but they really went off the deep end at the end of that decade.
I recall liking a Scavino from around 1997, but otherwise, yes, I’ve never been a huge fan. Like you, I’ve been told they’re moving more traditional, but I’ve not had enough of the recent ones, other than a few of the 15s that I mentioned.
Enrico, the father, bought a bunch of botte in the early 2000s, I know, and scaled back on the new barriques. Not sure what else has changed (their website gives no information on the winemaking), but they are not dense in the way they were in the late 90s. Which is a good thing.
It may be unfair to the current writers , but when I see a Wine Advocate 100 point wine, I think California cult, very modern Bordeaux or CDP bomb - and just move on as they are not of interest.
Is she cut from a different mold?
(PS I assume WK hasn’t rated a wine 100, but that would definitely catch my rapt attention).
On the discussion of how modern Sandrone is - I tasted the ‘16 Le Vigne last week. There is no noticeable sign of new oak usage on the wine. I found some sweet baking spices and a touch of espresso in the flavor profile, but that is not uncommon among more traditional producers in my experience. As with Vietti these days, the flavor profile is not modern but maybe theres a bit more concentration in the wine than is strictly traditional. But it is not overdone in any way, and there is no reason to expect the ‘16 Le Vigne wont age well, as it seems well balanced.
I liked it a lot, although I dont get a 100 point score.
Rob, since you taste a good number of these: what are your favorites in 2016?
I’m trying to taste them as they arrive but sample size is still not that high. Thus far my favorite is the Vietti Rocche with the G. Rinaldi Brunate coming in next. Beyond that, I think there’s a lot of wines that for me are all similar in quality. I’d say Vietti Ravera (maybe I underestimated it, but it didn’t show as well as Rocche to me), Vietti Brunate, Grasso Gavarini & Casa Mate, Brovia Ca’Mia, Sandrone Le Vigne, Rinaldi Tre Tine, are all ones I’ve tasted that are top notch and all in a similar tier to me.
The Vajra BdV is also incredible, but I only tasted it at winery briefly and haven’t gotten a bottle - still hasn’t arrived yet in U.S as far as I know. I’d say that and the Grasso are probably the best QPR in ‘16 I’ve tasted yet. Funny to me that there appears to be so much hype right now for the Brovia but Grasso and Vajra are widely available at $80-90.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some wines that I haven’t hit yet challenge the top - Burlotto, Bartolo, etc. I’m curious about G Conterno this year as well given no Monfortino, in theory could bode well for the Francia?
I think quality is just so high across the board if you stick to good producers. The Vajra Albe is $30 and delicious. The only bad ‘16 I’ve had is the Giacosa Falletto.
No Monfortino in 2016? That’s interesting - what was the reason given? And where did you read about this? Just curious…
Hey Cristian - the announcement was on the Vinous Live interview Roberto did with Galloni a few months ago (can be found on YouTube, worth watching the whole thing in my opinion).
I’m not exactly sure why. I think generally Roberto has to believe the Monfortino barrel is meaningfully different than the Francia to want to produce the two wines. So perhaps it just comes down to that, more so than the quality not being high.
I haven’t seen reports of anyone tasting his 2016s so it’ll be interesting to see what the quality is like. When I visited last fall, he didn’t say he wasn’t going to make 2016 Monfortino, but he did seem more excited about his 2015s and even 2017s, which I was surprised by. Generally he seems to like the colder vintages but he seemed positive on his 17s (I didn’t taste any).
Hey everyone. I have no experience with Sandrone - but just got an email offer for some 2014 Aleste at $70 USD. Has anyone had this wine before and can provide any comments on whether this is something I should try?
I tried the 2014 lineup with Barbara Sandrone at a dinner event last year in San Diego. They were all drinking very well, but in my opinion, they are still very tight and need 7-10 years longer before they’ll really shine. Their 2014 vintage was good, but 2013 and 2016 will likely over-shine it.
That is way below normal pricing. I would take a flyer on some
There have been several offerings on WS recently just south of $200. They don’t seem to last long though. This is more in line with what I would expect for this vintage
I just picked up a few bottles stateside for $130. In my wine journey, I decided Sandrone did not resonate with me. But the Monica Larner note got me. I want to taste what she did. I imagine it will do well in crowds as well. I also picked up an Aleste, which is typically my less favorite of the two SVDs, on the critics note which called it more finessed than usual - perhaps a style change is slowly happening?
WS Pro has this from NY at $149.99. There is one from Total Wine in AZ for $129.99 but I guess they don’t ship. The rest are $200+ on WS-Pro. I have a local wine store that offers it at $165. However, I got a one-time allocation from another LWS for $117 but it was tightly allocated and I only got 2 bottles (of course this sold out in 1 day). The other LWS at $165 is still available but I am not buying at that price.
A wonderful example of how points chasing means you’ll pay more.
If you trust the critic’s palate more than your own, then you’ll feel confident the extra cost is worth it.
If you live in the state of NY you can pick the Sandrone for $120 a bottle. I gave up trying to figure out how to get it shipped to me. You need to sign up for their app and get a 20% off coupon you can use off the price of $150. Happy hunting