Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Translucent ruby, the 2018 Barolo Monprivato is open and giving in its perfume of dried apricot, orange peel, saline earth, and raspberry. It is medium-bodied, with ultra-fine tannins, it is an elegant red revealing notes of wild strawberries, cardamom, and salty soil. A very pretty style, it is drinking beautifully now. Best after 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Giuseppe Mascarello 2018 Barolo Monprivato reveals an open and accessible personality. This wine is an immediate charmer. I tasted these wines with the Mascarello family seated across the table from me, and during our chat, they explained that this was a gratifying vintage in terms of farming and winemaking. The growing season was not too hot, and high alcohol levels were not an issue, they say. In the case of this wine, we are greeted to mild tannins and a pretty bouquet with delicate floral notes, smoke and tar.
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Wine Spectator
A supple red hallmarked by elegance and finesse, featuring rose, strawberry, cherry and accents of eucalyptus and mint, which ply the refined texture and structure. Balanced and persists on the fruit-filled aftertaste, where a mineral element emerges. Shows excellent length.
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo wine region includes five core townships: La Morra, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and the Barolo village itself, as well as a few outlying villages. The landscape of Barolo, characterized by prominent and castle-topped hills, is full of history and romance centered on the Nebbiolo grape. Its wines, with the signature “tar and roses” aromas, have a deceptively light garnet color but full presence on the palate and plenty of tannins and acidity. In a well-made Barolo wine, one can expect to find complexity and good evolution with notes of, for example, strawberry, cherry, plum, leather, truffle, anise, fresh and dried herbs, tobacco and violets.
There are two predominant soil types here, which distinguish Barolo from the lesser surrounding areas. Compact and fertile Tortonian sandy marls define the vineyards farthest west and at higher elevations. Typically the Barolo wines coming from this side, from La Morra and Barolo, can be approachable relatively early on in their evolution and represent the “feminine” side of Barolo, often closer in style to Barbaresco with elegant perfume and fresh fruit.
On the eastern side of the Barolo wine region, Helvetian soils of compressed sandstone and chalks are less fertile, producing wines with intense body, power and structured tannins. This more “masculine” style comes from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba. The township of Castiglione Falletto covers a spine with both soil types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.