In Treiso, on the high crest of Barbaresco, Rosanna Sandri is the matriarch of a family vineyard that has been in the Sandri name since her parents Mario and Teresina planted the first rows in 1950.
The Sandri family first planted vines in San Rocco Seno d'Elvio, in the quiet folds of hills outside the village of Barbaresco. By the time Rosanna married Franco in 1978, the holding totalled two and a half hectares, small even then.
What began as post-war necessity became a method. There are no chemical additions in the cellar, no tractors crushing the soils, no commercial yeasts. Fermentation happens in concrete vats without temperature control. Ageing is in large old wood, slow, generous, anonymous.
By the early 2000s another hectare and a half had joined the fold. The vineyards are planted at roughly 4,500 vines per hectare, root systems left to compete with cover crops and wild vegetation. Today her sons Mauro and Roberto Prandi, the first in the family to attend the Alba Enological School, direct the eponymous estate, intertwining their schooling with their mother's instinct.
In the vineyard, in the cellar
- 01Biodiversity in the rows. No herbicides, no synthetic treatments, hand work throughout the growing season.
- 02Native-yeast fermentation in concrete, long macerations under submerged cap, vinification at cellar temperature.
- 03Aging in large neutral oak and concrete, the wine, not the vessel, does the talking.
A walk through the rows
Take the portrait with you
Two PDFs, set in the same hand as the page you're reading. One sheet for the bag, one editorial for the back office.