There’s plenty of critical praise for the 2011 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo, but then again, there’s plenty of critical praise for just about every release of this wine. Consistency, both stylistic and qualitative, is a hallmark of this artisanal
cantina, and if anything, it has only increased under Maria Teresa Mascarello’s stewardship.
In fact, I don’t think “steward” is 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 Mascarello wines as some of the most evocative, long-lived expressions of Nebbiolo in existence. And while much has been made of the fact that Maria Teresa didn’t “change anything” when she took the reins—Bartolo’s ultra-traditional methodologies are still very much in place—she deserves more credit than that. I’ve worked with these wines for 20-odd years, and there’s no doubt in my mind that Maria Teresa has improved them without sacrificing their soul. They are a little less rustic, with more purity to the fruit and more polish to the tannins (which, in the past, could often be quite hard and take a while to resolve). Regardless of vintage, Mascarello wines are always among the most finessed and perfumed in the region. Nothing has changed in terms of scale, and she wouldn’t dare introduce any new oak
barriques into the aging cellar (her father, as many of you know, railed against using new wood for aging Barolo, even going so far as to scrawl “No Barriques, No Berlusconi!” on some of his labels). Maybe I don’t need to say any of this—this is some of the most sought-after wine in the world, and we have very little to share—but a wine this meaningful demands the extra effort. If you have the means, this is an important acquisition for your cellar; we can offer up to three bottles per person today until our small allocation disappears.
As I noted in a previous offer, I never got to meet Bartolo Mascarello. It’s one of my biggest regrets. Visiting the family’s small winery in the village of Barolo is often described like a religious pilgrimage; in his later years, Bartolo was confined to a wheelchair and held court like the Yoda of Barolo in his small 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 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.
Of all the glowing press today’s 2011 has received, what stuck with me was a comment about the wine’s relative delicacy and detail in what’s generally described as a “big” vintage. Yes, this 2011 is a richer, rounder wine than its 2010 counterpart, but we’re talking about shades of gray here: This is one of the prettiest, most ‘Burgundian’ Barolo wines out there, and only more so since Maria Teresa took over. In the glass, it displays a reflective ruby-garnet core moving to pink and orange at the rim, with a highly perfumed, swoon-worthy nose of black and red cherry, fresh red currant, blood orange peel, rose petals, tobacco, beef broth, and underbrush. It is medium-plus in body and yet, when compared to most of its peers, it feels bright and lifted in a way that feels increasingly rare: In a warming climate, a lot of modern-day Barolos are becoming a rather massive in terms of structure, and Nebbiolo’s propensity toward high alcohol only exacerbates that. Mascarello’s 2011 (at 14.5%, incidentally) carries its alcohol effortlessly, balancing it with tremendous freshness and, as noted above, ripe and fine-grained tannins. It is only just now starting to reveal itself, requiring a good hour in a decanter if you’re drinking a bottle soon. The real sweet spot for this wine is about 5 years from now, though it should continue to evolve beautifully past the 20-year mark. It’s elite wine, plain and simple, so treat it as such—the right temperature (60-65 degrees); the right glass (the best Burgundy stem you’ve got); and a worthy main-course dish (see attached) are all in order. Take it slow and savor every sip—wines like this don’t come around very often!
