Bartolo Mascarello Barolo 2022
We have 6 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
The Land
The most traditional Barolo in the Langhe has no single-vineyard label, on purpose. Bartolo Mascarello blends Nebbiolo from a handful of the commune's best-known sites. Cannubi is the long ridge in the village of Barolo, with sandy, calcareous marl that gives perfume and fine tannin. Rué lies nearby in Barolo. Rocche dell'Annunziata, across the line in La Morra, brings red fruit lift. San Lorenzo, a small parcel, was replanted in 2015, and leased vines in Monrobiolo di Bussia have stood in for it. Bartolo believed no single vineyard performs at its best every year, and blending across these slopes, exposures and soils is how the house evens out the swings of a hot or a cool year. In a vintage like 2022, that logic counts for more than usual.
The Wine
The Bartolo Mascarello Barolo 2022 is 100 percent Nebbiolo, its vineyards co-fermented rather than kept apart, in glass-lined concrete tanks without temperature control and without selected yeasts. For 2022, Maria Teresa Mascarello reports a compressed harvest from September 20 to 23 and 32 days on the skins with twice-daily pumpovers, skipping the submerged-cap maceration she uses in some years. The wine then ages in large Slavonian oak botti for roughly 30 months. 2022 was scorching and extremely dry, and the estate says drought cut yields by more than 40 percent, with Cannubi hit hardest. Expect the house signature: rose petal, red cherry, orange peel, tar and dried herbs, firm but finely grained tannin, and a long, savory finish. This is a Barolo to lay down, not to open on arrival.
The People
Giulio Mascarello started bottling his own Barolo just after World War I, when almost nobody in the village did. His father, Bartolomeo, had been cellar master at the Cantina Sociale di Barolo before it closed during the war. In the 1930s Giulio bought into Cannubi, San Lorenzo and Rué. His son Bartolo, a wartime partisan, joined in 1945 and eventually bottled the entire crop. Through the barrique wars of the 1980s and '90s he became traditional Barolo's loudest defender, and his hand-painted "No Barrique, No Berlusconi" labels are now collectors' items. Since his death in 2005 his daughter Maria Teresa has run the cellar with the same methods and almost no publicity. The estate keeps no website and still makes a single Barolo. Few bottles carry more of the appellation's history.
Food Pairing
Give it years in the cellar, then decant it an hour or two ahead. Tajarin, the egg-rich Piedmontese pasta, with butter and shaved white truffle is the classic; the wine's acidity cuts the butter and its earthiness meets the truffle. Brasato al Barolo, beef chuck braised for hours in red wine with onions, carrots and rosemary, gives the tannin enough protein and fat to soften against. Try roast pheasant or guinea hen with a porcini and Marsala sauce. For cheese, a wedge of aged Castelmagno or Parmigiano with walnuts. This is the bottle you buy now for the dinner you will be planning in 2035.
We ship wine to most states with a $100 minimum order for shipping. We don't ship spirits nor beer.
Weather shipping advisory: Orders placed during times of extreme heat or extreme cold will be held for no charge until more favorable weather returns.
Piedmont, framed by the Alps in northwestern Italy, is a land of rolling hills and carefully cultivated vineyards. The continental climate, with its cold winters and warm summers, creates prime conditions for the Nebbiolo grape, which dominates much of the region's red wine production. The Langhe area is home to Barolo and Barbaresco, structured red wines known for their complex aromas, firm tannins, and aging potential. While Nebbiolo is the dominant grape of Piedmont, the region also makes interesting white wines like those from Arneis and Timorasso. Alto Piemonte is a separate region in the north with its own distinctive expressions of Nebbiolo, alongside other red grape varietals.
Italy - Piedmont
Nebbiolo, a prestigious grape from Italy's Piedmont region, is celebrated for its profound truffle and rose aromas, complex flavors, and ability to age gracefully thanks to strong acidity and tannins, producing the renowned Barolo and Barbaresco wines.
