2019 Elio Altare Barolo Unoperuno
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
Made with a bend of fruit from Arborina (in La Morra), Cannubi (in Barolo) and Badarina and Ceretta (in Serralunga d'Alba), Silvia Altare calls her 2019 Barolo Unoperuno a "super mega blend of classic single-vineyard sites." The berries are hand selected in the most excruciating manner to avoid all stems, leaves, ugly berries, bugs and so forth. Indeed, "unoperuno" means "one by one" in Italian, and that gives you an idea of the exacting work required to make this very limited-production wine (with about 1,200 bottles released annually in the fall). "Everyone is moving toward stem inclusion," Silvia tells me: "We are moving in the opposite direction." These results are softly elegant with ripe tannins and lots of dark fruit and black cherry at the back. There are mild mineral tones and a hint of earth or rust.
Critic scores
Walter Speller, jancisrobinson.com
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2019 Barolo Unoperuno is a wine of total class and elegance. Bright and translucent, with compelling inner sweetness, the 2019 is flat-out gorgeous. Crushed red berry fruit, orange zest, cedar and sweet pipe tobacco are all finely delineated. There's terrific energy and verge here. Give this a few years to come together .
A blend of all their top crus (Cannubi, Ceretta, Badarina). Hand-destemmed (‘uno per uno’ means ‘one by one’). The wine was aged in five barriques, of which three were two years old and two were new. Just mid ruby. Deeper and more layered than the straight Barolo and a little more closed. Raspberry along with the fragrance of cardamon. Still youthful and compact and with an endless finish. Very elegant and very tannic, but beautifully precise. (WS)