Why it matters
The producer
Cascina Disa sits on the east-facing flank of Perno Hill in Monforte d'Alba, one of the Barolo zone's most respected crus, where roughly 7.5 contiguous hectares of Nebbiolo, Barbera, and Dolcetto fill a single address in the Disa hamlet. Elio Sandri makes fewer than 12,000 bottles a year, ferments everything in cement with indigenous yeasts, and ages from the simplest Dolcetto through the Riserva in the same old Slavonian-oak casks. Nothing leaves the cellar racked, fined, or filtered.
The scale and the approach are a choice. Elio farms without chemical inputs and cuts the grass twice a year; the vines are left to manage their own equilibrium. The wines carry the particular character of a cooler, east-facing slope where Nebbiolo ripens late, and the cellar does nothing to blur that.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Perno is a recognised cru within the Monforte d'Alba commune of Barolo, in the Langhe hills of southern Piemonte. The hill faces east rather than south, which gives Cascina Disa a cooler microclimate than most Barolo addresses and pushes harvest later into autumn. The Nebbiolo parcels sit at 300 to 350 metres above sea level on a steep slope where cool air slows ripening and the grapes hold firm acidity into October.
That later harvest is written into the wine. Perno Nebbiolo carries tighter tannin at picking than grapes from warmer, south-facing slopes in communes like La Morra, and the Barolos from this address are built for long cellaring rather than early drinking. The label says Monforte d'Alba; the east slope explains why the wine needs time.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Elio cuts the grass twice a year and does nothing else to the vineyard floor. The vines are farmed organically in practice, relying on their own defenses rather than chemical treatments. Old vines run through the Barbera parcels.
In the cellar, fermentation happens in cement vats with indigenous yeasts. From there, the wines move into old Slavonian-oak botti, large casks that give no new oak character to the wine. The varietal wines, Dolcetto and Barbera, spend one year in wood before bottling. Barolo spends between 18 and 72 months depending on the vintage and its character, a range that reflects Sandri's patience with difficult years. Nothing is racked between vessels. Fining and filtration are not used. Sulphur is added once, at the moment of bottling.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range follows the vineyard logic: Dolcetto and Barbera from the cooler parcels, Barolo and Barolo Riserva from Nebbiolo on the primary slopes.
Dolcetto d'Alba is made from Dolcetto grown on the north- and west-facing ground, aged one year in old botti. It is the lightest wine in the range, lower in tannin than the Nebbiolo-based bottles, with the soft, dry fruit character that Dolcetto produces at altitude in the Langhe.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Barbera d'Alba Superiore. It is 100% Barbera from old vines at Perno, fermented in cement with indigenous yeasts, aged one year in old Slavonian-oak botti, and bottled without fining or filtration. The same address, the same cellar approach, the same hands as the Barolo, but accessible at three to five years rather than ten.