Barbaresco Roncagliette DOCG 2023 1500ml Magnum

A Nebbiolo that tells its origin through spice and minerality rather than fruit. In the glass, a brilliant dark cherry red with a hint of rust at the rim. On the nose, a dark, vegetal fruit takes centre stage: ripe tomato and beetroot, less a vegetal note than a fusion of fruitiness, earthiness and depth. Behind it, black cherry, elderberry and mulberry, and with aeration cocoa butter, lightly roasted coffee, liquorice, liquorice root, black and white pepper, juniper, along with ethereal hints of sage and oregano. Alongside this, a cool, smoky minerality of wet stone and flint.

Cascina La Berchialla sits at the top of the Roncagliette cru in Barbaresco. The estate has been in family hands for over 200 years; Bondonio's great-great-great-grandfather was among the co-founders of Produttori del Barbaresco in 1894. The estate's seven hectares are spread across Roncagliette, Starderi, Altavilla, Neive and Catagnole delle Lanze.

Nebbiolo, dry, 14.0% vol. Biodynamic principles shape everyday life in the vineyards, without being turned into a marketing story.

Silky and almost weightless, the texture finely polished, almost velvety, without losing tension. The tannin remains a fine structural element, the architecture carried by a precise, gripping acidity. Saline, stony and deep, yet bright and transparent, with pressure building from the mid-palate, never heavy or broad. The fruit recedes, black cherry stays present, joined by juniper, pepper, liquorice, rosemary, oregano and sage. In the long finish, the tomato-like component returns, intertwined with herbs and freshness.

The magnum format gives this structured Barbaresco extra calm for its evolution. Olek Bondonio works without a website or tasting room, and the seven hectares yield only limited quantities.