Sandro de Bruno - When Volcanic Rock Enters the Glass
Volcanic soils, uncompromising Durella and a wine tasting that moved from energy to poetry, and finally to wisdom.
Sandro's vineyards lie in the hills of the Lessini area, where the territories of Soave and Durello meet. The vineyards sit at more than 300 metres above sea level, isolated from roads and traffic, surrounded by hills and rooted in volcanic soils. While there was little time for us to visit the vineyards this time, Sandro made sure to describe to me in his best words what makes them so special, and we promised to get back together again to spend proper time in those hills.
In the third generation of winemakers, Sandro returned to this volcanic origin again and again. For him, it was never simply a geological detail or a romantic description of terroir. It explains the acidity, the minerality, the longevity and even the initially difficult character of his wines.
Right at the beginning, he handed me two dark basalt stones (a beautiful present that I totally forgot to take back to Hamburg...) asking me to rub them between my fingers, to feel their texture, and then to search for that same mineral sensation in the wines, particularly in the Garganega.
The rocks stayed with us on the tasting table beside the bottles and glasses, and I returned to them several times to capture that basaltic, volcanic feeling and to look for it in the wines we were tasting.
Later, Sandro used an image that captured the entire experience:
“Questa roccia che entra nel bicchiere"
“This rock that enters the glass.”
Volcanic soil gives nothing immediately
Sandro explained that volcanic soils can produce wines of extraordinary longevity, but they do not necessarily produce wines that reveal themselves immediately.
Young volcanic wines, he said, can be scorbutici: gruff, angular and reluctant to please. They can be tignosi: stubborn and tenacious.
What he said after, became the central theme of the visit:
“Il terreno vulcanico non ti dà niente subito, non ti regala niente subito. Devi avere pazienza, pazienza, pazienza.”
“Volcanic soil gives you nothing immediately. It gives you no gifts straight away. You must have patience, patience, patience.”
That patience defines Sandro’s work: He does not try to make the wines easier by covering their acidity or softening their character with sweetness. Instead, he gives them time: in the vineyard, in steel, on fine lees, in the bottle, in the cellar.
The rock does not disappear. Slowly, it becomes elegance.
Wines created in the vineyard
Sandro repeatedly returned to the idea that wine must begin in the vineyard.
In a message he sent days after my visit, he explained:
“You grow beautiful grapes and then guide them through the cellar.”
That word - guide - is important.
Sandro’s approach is low-intervention, but it is not passive. His wines are not left without technical care.
He uses knowledge, lees contact, bâtonnage, stainless steel ageing and long maturation to protect the natural identity of the wine rather than replace it.
Softness comes from the wine’s own lees, complexity from time, minerality from those basalt rocks, longevity from acidity, healthy grapes and structure.
The personality? That one comes from the place, and from the winemaker.
“Difficult” wines
Sandro knows that his wines are not always immediately understood, and as any true artist, he takes pride in that.
He told me that they are often described as “difficult wines,” a phrase that leaves him wondering whether it is intended as a compliment or criticism.
For him, genuinely easy wines are often those that have been deliberately softened, sweetened or constructed to give immediate pleasure.
They may require time in the glass, and may continue to evolve over several days (like the 2015 Durello that we opened to taste, and that I had resumed drinking 5 days later in Hamburg)
They may not immediately flatter the palate, but ask for attention, and give back uniqueness.
A cellar built around time
Behind the large brick-vaulted tasting room lies an extraordinary cellar.
Thousands of bottles rest horizontally beneath the arches, forming entire walls of wine waiting quietly on the lees: There are traditional wooden riddling racks, barrels, handwritten signs - love this - identifying different lots and corridors where bottles seem to disappear into the distance.
The scale is impressive, but the atmosphere feels patient, and stopped in the past, waiting for what the future reserves: Time is not an abstract number here. It is physically present in every resting bottle, making the progression from 36 to 60 and 100 months visible all around the cellar.
Durella: a grape that refuses to be softened
The central grape of our tasting was Durella, a variety known for its intense acidity and naturally firm character. It is a wine that we were introduced back in 2024 by one of our cherished olive oil producers, Luigi Ruffo, one that we immediately fell in love with.
Sandro began making sparkling Durello in 2007. At the time, he remembers only seven producers embarking on this journey. Today, there are around thirty, and the growing interest is understandable.
Durella has the acidity, structure and tension needed for long traditional-method ageing, and possesses an extraordinary characteristic: it cleans the mouth, it cuts through fat and is of amazing freshness and crispiness. In Sandro’s hands, it becomes something more than a technically suitable sparkling-wine grape.
But what makes Sandro’s interpretation so distinctive is his refusal to soften the wine through dosage.
All the sparkling Durella wines we tasted - 36, 60 and 100 months - were made as Dosaggio Zero, Pas Dosage.
“Non metto zuccheri, quindi non è ammorbidito, non è domesticato.”
“I do not add sugar, so it is not softened and it is not domesticated.”
This does not mean that the wine is left without guidance. Sandro keeps the base wine for an additional year in stainless steel before bottling. During that time, it remains in contact with the fine lees and undergoes bâtonnage. This helps develop mannoproteins and creates softness and volume from within the wine itself.
That distinction is essential, for Sandro does not impose softness from the outside, but allows the wine to create its own balance through lees contact, technical precision and time.
We started with a still Durello
Before opening the sparkling wines, Sandro poured a very old still Durello. The purpose was clear: he wanted to show me the ageing potential of the grape itself before the traditional method, bubbles and long lees ageing entered the story.
The wine had spent more than ten years in bottle, yet the acidity remained incredibly alive.
There were similarities with mature Riesling: peach, honeysuckle and honey, all held together by a freshness that seemed almost impossible after so much time.
The wine had evolved, but it had not become tired, and that first glass explained everything that followed:
The longevity of Sandro’s sparkling wines does not begin with the bubbles. It begins in the grape.
Lessini Durello DOC Metodo Classico Riserva 36 Mesi
The song: Fresh, kicky, inviting
The first sparkling wine was the 36-month Metodo Classico Dosaggio Zero, a fresh and energetic Durello, one reminding us immediately of our encounter with Luigi Ruffo two years ago, in Illasi, not far away from Soave, and how fascinated we had been by this discovery.
The fruit moves right away in the direction of crisp green apple, while the foam fills the mouth with an exuberant, almost playful texture. The wine feels alive in every direction, while the acidity does not simply sit on the palate, but kind of pushes the wine forward, making it refreshing, appetising and immediately enjoyable.
This was Durella in its youthful form: crisp, bright, direct.
Lessini Durello DOC Metodo Classico Riserva 60 Mesi
The poem: With the 60-month Riserva, the wine changes and invites to discovery.
The foam becomes finer, brighter and full of elegance. The youthful force of the younger Durello was still present, but it had become calmer and more composed.
The fruit evolves from green apples towards peach and apricot, with hints of citrus. It is a perfect example of how several years more on the lees keeps the typical acidity and tension of Durella, but expresses them with greater refinement. It had energy, but also rhythm. It felt complete without becoming predictable.
For me, this was poetry.
Lessini Durello DOC Metodo Classico Riserva 100 Mesi
The wise one: While the 60 months was poetry, the 100 months was pure emotion, a wine that made me stop.
This time Sandro opened a 2015 vintage. Perfection...
It is seldom that i just fall into astonishment, and contemplation of something that the nature and the hand of man can accomplish. I was literally speechless, and felt like I needed a moment...
It was no longer simply a question of acidity, fruit, foam or minerality. The wine had developed a depth that felt almost human.
I told Sandro that the 100-month wine seemed like the wise one - mature, calm and full of experience.
At that exact moment, Sandro and his Durello enologist answered together:
“Saggio.”
Wise.
The wine felt like a conversation with an elderly man whose energy had not disappeared, but had been transformed into perspective. The wine opened a reflective space. Instead of asking only to be tasted, it seemed to ask to be listened to.
It was in this one that I recognised one of my favourite flavours, mela cotogna, the quince. Sandro’s enologist confirmed the impression and seemed genuinely happy that I had identified it. I felt like I had discovered one small part of what time had allowed the wine to become.
“La bomba atomica”
The final wine was a Pinot Noir Metodo Classico.
Sandro called it: “La bomba atomica: The atomic bomb.”
The nickname fitted perfectly, because of that amazing volcanic minerality, smoke and chilled fruit, with energetic fizz and the long, expansive foamy structure that ran through Sandro’s sparkling wines.
Even with a different grape, Sandro’s signature remained clear: volcanic tension, freshness, precision and no attempt to hide the wine behind sweetness.
After the emotional stillness of the 100-month Durello, the Pinot Noir arrived like an explosion, a playful and dramatic way to finish a tasting that none of us wanted to finish.
Time to go, a long road to Hamburg awaits. Thank you for your big, warm welcome maestro!
