Elio Altare - Barolo Unoperuno 2018 (750ml)
Price: $339.99
| Producer | Elio Altare |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Piedmont |
| Varietal | Nebbiolo |
| Vintage | 2018 |
| Sku | 64241 |
| Size | 750ml |
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Elio Altare Description
History of Unoperuno:
First vintage of Unoperuno is 2010, born almost as a game, as a bet in the family. In spring 2010 at a family lunch my dad Elio served a bottle of Larigi (barbera) 1986, notoriously not a great vintage because of hail and rain and a wine we rarely drank because of the very few bottles left in the family library, with great surprise the wine was fantastic.
To quote Antonio Galloni “The 1986 Vigna Larigi is the first in what will turn out to be a series of remarkable wines. Graphite, wild herbs and black cherries are some of the nuances that emerge from this deeply-colored Barbera. The fruit remains vibrant and incredibly pure all the way through to the long, polished finish, and the balance is simply awesome.In this hail-plagued vintage Altare harvested literally berry by berry, and the proof is in the glass. This Barbera is so alive and full of life it is hard to believe.”
This great bottle Larigi 1986 was born because Elio, on a very difficult vintage where most of the grapes had been damaged by the hail and the rain, decided to hand-destem in order to pull out only the few good berries left, as a result only 2 barriques were made / 600 bts of a great Barbera were born.
Harvest 2010 arrived soon, with almost a prefect growing season the grapes were looking great as ever but we thought: why don’t we give it a try and hand-destem the berries of Nebbiolo? and why not starting with our historic family vineyard Arborina?
The idea behind the project was to maximize the purity of the fruit, making sure there were no stems, leaves or undesirable berries or bugs or any extra parts left in the maceration.
Nebbiolo is very hard to fully destem because the jacks are naturally fragile and as much as your destemming machine is technological and expensive it would never be as accurate as doing the work by hand.
The name was finally born with the first official release in 2011: UNOPERUNO literally means “one by one” in Italian, no better name would explain the work behind, a painstaking and time-consuming labor of love that had never been done before in Barolo.
Within the years we have been able to refine the work and accelerate the timing to produce it, timing which has dropped to about one week now, the production is always very limited, 3 to 5 barriques / 900 to 1.500 bts are produced and here is the idea of the blend:
A super- duper blend of all our owned and rented vineyards: Arborina (La Morra), Cannubi (Barolo), Cerretta (Serralunga), Pernanno (Castiglione Falletto), Sarmassa (Barolo)
What we are looking for is a silky Barolo that speaks to finesse: sweet, perfumed and lifted in the glass, intensely aromatic, succulent red cherries, spices and wild flowers that all grace the palate.
Vinous: 95 Points
The 2018 Barolo Unoperuno is terrific. Bright and beautifully perfumed, the Unoperuno impresses with finesse. Crushed flowers, sweet red berry fruit, kirsch, cinnamon, mint and dried flowers all soar out of the glass. Readers will find a Barolo of uncommon finesse and elegance. As has been the case for a few vintages now, the Unoperuno is made from a blend of vineyard sites, with all the fruit destemmed by hand. The purity of the flavors is unreal.
Wine Advocate: 95 Points
As the wine name suggests, this Barolo is assembled a single berry at a time, "one by one." With a high price point that reflects a labor-intensive winemaking process, the Elio Altare 2018 Barolo Unoperuno shows some softness and sweetness of a hot vintage. This wine is made of a blend of fruit selected from Arborina (in La Morra), Cannubi (in Barolo), Pernanno (in Castiglione Falletto), Sarmassa (in Barolo) and Ceretta (in Serralunga d'Alba). The bouquet reveals soft cherry confit and dried raspberry with spice, leather and dark licorice. Made entirely by hand, this is a limited production of 1,300 bottles.
