Luciano Sandrone

Why we follow Luciano Sandrone

The estate

Luciano Sandrone came from a family of carpenters in La Morra and went into wine partly because he was allergic to sawdust. He started at Borgogno at seventeen, moved to Marchesi di Barolo where he became cellar master, and in 1977 bought a small parcel of Cannubi Boschis. He and his wife Mariuccia made 1,500 bottles in the garage beneath their house after the 1978 harvest. He kept making the wine at home until the new cellar was finished at the end of the 1990s. Luciano died on 5 January 2023, aged 76. The estate continues under the family.

The vineyards

Grown from that first single hectare to roughly 27 hectares stretching from Barolo through Serralunga d'Alba and into Roero. Cannubi Boschis, a sub-cru of the extended Cannubi hill, is the historic heart. Sandrone demonstrated that this first section of the hill gives wines quite different from those of Cannubi Centrale, a textbook argument for terroir at MGA level. There are also holdings in Roero's Valmaggiore cru, a natural amphitheatre, for Nebbiolo d'Alba. Viticulture is organic in practice though uncertified.

In the glass

Ageing in 500-litre barrels with restrained new oak. The house sits deliberately between tradition and modernity. Total production is around 130,000 bottles a year across Nebbiolo, Dolcetto and Barbera. Jancis Robinson's tribute recalls arriving as an unknown young sommelier and being received with total warmth despite the grandeur of the place; Luciano told her to drop "Signor Sandrone" immediately. The Dolcetto is genuinely one of the region's best, and the estate has never treated it as an afterthought.

With Lamont’s

Offered through the Private Cellar Selection, generally following the March release. Register your interest and we will contact you when the next allocation is confirmed.