Bartolo Mascarello, Barolo Hot on Sale

Bartolo Mascarello, Barolo

Consistency, both stylistic and qualitative, is a hallmark of this artisan-scale cantina, and if anything, it has only increased under Maria Teresa Mascarello’s stewardship. In fact, “steward” probably isn’t the right way to describe her: Although she was intimately involved in the winemaking well before her father’s death in 2005, his legend still looms large—but now, more than a decade later, it’s her legend that’s starting to take shape. Barolo lovers know Bartolo Mascarello wines as some of the most evocative, finessed, long-lived expressions of Nebbiolo in existence.

In his later years, Bartolo Mascarello was confined to a wheelchair and held court like the Yoda of Barolo in his tiny office, wearing his signature black beret. He had first joined his family winery in 1945, after fighting as a teenage partigiano (anti-fascist ‘partisan) in WWII, and maintained his outspoken commitment to ‘traditional’ Barolo wines—fermented with long skin macerations in old wooden and concrete vats, followed by aging in well-used, Slavonian oak botti and even some old chestnut barrels. He once famously compared a Barolo aged in new oak barriques to “a clown with rouged cheeks.”

And, as has long been visible on the classic Mascarello label, the family eschews “single-vineyard” bottlings in favor of a single wine incorporating fruit from the family’s holdings in the cru vineyards of “Cannubi,” “San Lorenzo,” and “Rué,” all in the town of Barolo proper, as well as “Rocche” in the neighboring commune of La Morra. The idea, then as now, is to produce the most balanced, “complete” wine possible, year after year, by combining the best produce of diverse vineyard sites.

This 1990 is right in its sweet spot, with all the operatic aromas and deeply earthy savor that characterize well-aged Barolo from a classic producer. Tar, roses, leather, dried orange peel, tobacco…even at 30+ years of age, this is a tour de force. An unforgettable wine experience!