A month in Barolo: A visit with Maria Teresa Mascarello at Barolo Mascarello

I had a wonderful visit with Maria Teresa Mascarello of her father’s namesake winery, Bartolo Mascarello. If I had to pick one desert island wine, it may be Bartolo Mascarello Barolo (it certainly would age the best)... absolutely, one of my favorite producers in the world; a top 4 holding in my cellar. Most of the tour was conducted by Emanuele, who has a wealth of knowledge about the producer. As one of the most staunch traditionalists here, as you may imagine, not a lot has changed here since my visit 11 years ago... but a few things have... new concrete floor in the fermentation room, a new botti here... perhaps the biggest news was the replanting of San Lorenzo in 2015, which took the vineyard off line after the 2014 vintage. It was replaced with a leased plot from Monrobiolo (Bussia) of a similar size. With San Lorenzo coming back online in 2020 and them maintaining the lease on Monobiolo, 2020 (the current release) marks the first vintage ever with 5 vineyards in the blend (though since yields have been down, there is no more wine... these plots account for only about 10% of the land, regardless). Otherwise, perhaps some slightly different vineyard management due to climate change... but otherwise, they just keep ticking along here, producing some of the most profound wines in the world (fermentation in the same 70 year old, non temperature controlled concrete tanks, aging only in large old botti, etc). Regardless of that, just walking around this cellar feels special, for some reason... perhaps because I know what joys this space create in my life when I open bottles with friends.

• 2022 Bartolo Mascarello Barbera d'Alba 91 Points

  Italy, Piedmont, Alba, Barbera d'Alba

  Bottled in July of last year. This was rich, and dark in color. Nice lovely, deep, penetrating aromas; lovely fruit and quite expressive. Round and deep palate texture showing nice purity of fruit and integrated (not too strong) acid. Nice balance, and fine to drink at present. Good intensity on the finish, more acid shows up here than the palate, but still not too deep for a Barbera. Nice, slightly bitter strawberry fruit lingers. This feels ready to go. Yum.

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• 2022 Bartolo Mascarello Langhe Nebbiolo 89 Points

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC

  Soft, mellow, and decent intensity on the nose. Smells salty and mineral laced. Quite pretty. Soft, mild texture on the palate. Tart and acidic. Strong and bitter finish, showing plenty of acid and tannins. Strong, but mostly about the structure and not too much fruit to counterpoint that.

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• 2020 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo 93 Points

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Aromas are immediately elegant and pretty, with a really lovely purity of character. Shows class and depth on the nose, and certainly feels old school Barolo in the best possible way. Soft palate entry, the flavors are pretty milt mild. Structure is integrated well for this young age. Fairly light in body, but pure intensity and tart bright red fruit are present, but not laser bright. Nice grilled meat notes on the finish. Quite unique and interesting, with lovely lingering acidity, lightly colored strawberries, but flavors are overall fairly mild. This is a pretty mild, chill wine in this warmer vintage.

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One fun note, with this last photo of a little window up at street level... when the winery was new, they used this as a grape shoot, and during harvest they’d drop grapes from the street directly into the fermentation room, which was the oldest part of the now cellar! Pretty neat. I also love their archive of so many old bottles, and their little cage, showing one each of so many old vintages.