We’re into the final week of the 2009 Langhe harvest, with a full two weeks separating the Barbaresco and Barolo (reflecting the difference in style).   As you can see from my chat with Luca Sandrone, of Barolo producer Luciano Sandrone, 2009 has delivered some immaculate fruit and abundantly so too.

 
While Barolo enjoyed a textbook season (deep winter snow, a good soaking during the spring, perfect flowering, constant summer heat and a cooler final month), Barbaresco and the Roero suffered a minor hailstorm on the 19th June, early enough for the fruit to shrivel dry and fall off during the summer; so nothing major.
 
The Nebbiolo planted around the august Barolo village of Serralunga d’Alba is routinely the last to be picked, boasting the longest hang time due to the poorest, coldest soils of all the Langhe, and consequently the most structured of all Baroli. Davide Rosso of Giovanni Rosso is making plans to move fast now (he’s a rally car racing fanatic didn’t you know), so I’ll be straining to keep up…’