Winemaker Notes
Deep garnet red. Ethereal and enveloping with intense and persistent notes of sweet spices, sandalwood, tobacco, and leather. Great structure. Remarkable tannins which soften with time and make it a perfect wine for aging. Its very long finish is typical of Barolos from Castiglione Falletto.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Blue flower, ripe dark-skinned fruit, cedar and forest floor aromas shape the nose. Delicious and firmly structured, the full-bodied palate also shows finesse, delivering juicy Morello cherry, crushed raspberry and licorice alongside fine-grained, enveloping tannins.
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Wine & Spirits
Franco Massolino’s success in the 2017 vintage isn’t limited to his Serralunga crus. This vibrant wine from Castiglione Falletto shows flavors of juicy red cherry and raspberry laced together by taut, ferrous tannins. Notes of licorice, menthol and fresh rose petals add even more lift and detail to the wine.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Sourced from a 1.3-hectare parcel of Parussi in Castiglione Falletto, the 2017 Barolo Parussi is fresh with chalky mineral earth, red cherry, dried roses, and cedar. Ripe and vibrant, with dried raspberry leather, apricot, and sweet herbs, there are powerful tannins that balance the fruit. These are wines that need time to show their true potential and I think will be worth the wait. Drink 2025-2050.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
With fruit from Castiglione Falletto, the Massolino 2017 Barolo Parussi is a standout in this portfolio of wines mainly from Serralunga d'Alba. Thanks to its protective positioning at the center of the appellation where it draws upon the soils and exposures of the surrounding areas, Castiglione Falletto performs very nicely in a vintage that saw extreme weather with frost and drought. What the Parussi brings to the table is more focus and sharpness, with red fruits, crushed rose, cooling limestone mineral and some dried mint.
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Wine Spectator
This is supple and juicy, offering cherry, strawberry, floral and tea flavors. Elements of mineral and tobacco chime in as this builds nicely to the long, energetic finish. Shows excellent balance and potential.
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.