A Barbaresco house making Barolo, from La Morra and Monforte. Thirty months in French oak plus bottle age. The much-praised 2019 vintage, ready to pour and with years still to wait.
Deep garnet red with an orange rim that gives away its age. The nose is broad and layered: dried rose and violet, cherry in its juice, tar, liquorice and a clear savoury edge with leather and truffle behind it. On the palate the 2019 shows its best side: ripe but not heavy, its middle carried by fruit and acidity alike. The tannin is powerful and fine at once, building towards a dry, very long finish in which the savoury notes take over. This bottle drinks now but has years ahead of it. Decant two hours beforehand and serve at 18 degrees.
Cantina Francone has worked out of Neive, in the heart of Barbaresco, since 1892. Five generations on, Marco and Fabrizio Francone run the family estate, whose reputation rests above all on the Gallina hill: a south-facing cru listed on Renato Ratti's historic map of Barbaresco crus.
For the Barolo the estate works outside its own commune. The grapes come from La Morra and Monforte d'Alba, two Barolo villages rarely brought together in one bottle: the first known for perfume and finesse, the second for body and tannin.
Hand-picked in the second half of October. Fermentation is classical, with fourteen to sixteen days of maceration using punching down and pumping over.
About thirty months in French oak barrels and casks follow, and then at least six months' rest in bottle before the wine leaves the estate.
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