2022 Olek Bondonio, Barbaresco, Starderi

Olek Bondonio is the anti-formalist. Working from his family’s old farm on the slopes of Roncagliette and Starderi, he makes wine more by instinct than formula. Viticulture is organic; fermentations are wild. The wines spend a long time on their skins, sometimes up to fifty days, building texture and depth through foot-treading and gentle pump-overs rather than forceful extraction. Fermentations are ambient, warmer, and more variable than in most cellars, resulting in wilder aromatics and beautifully tactile tannins. The result is Barbaresco that feels alive: savory, energetic, humming with nerve. Starderi, in Neive, sits higher and faces slightly east, experiencing cooler morning light, linear structure, and finer aromatics. Por power, texture, and electricity, Olek Bondonio delivers like no one else.