Winemaker Notes
Dark garnet. Hints of sage, rosemary, and earth on the nose. Firm, velvety tannins with a long, persistent finish.
Pair with roasted red meat, truffled foods and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
An exotic, high-toned Barolo with blackberry, walnut and dried-flower aromas and flavors, as well as orange undertones. It’s full-bodied with spices and ripe fruit. Figs, too. Long and wild.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Parusso 2016 Barolo Mosconi exhibits that same power, intensity and dark fruit with aromas of grape skins and vinous components. Marco Parusso lets his grapes undergo a very light appassimento in a cold storage room before pressing, and he uses a percentage of whole-cluster fruit with stems. Those strong flavors and tannins are very much on notice. You get hints of white pepper on this very powerful and tannic wine that won't be accessible until at least 10 years after the harvest, or probably more.
-
Decanter
Marco Parusso is a free spirit among Barolo winemakers, restlessly experimenting with drying grapes, lees contact and other techniques. He favours long macerations and ageing his wines in new barriques. Mosconi is a fairly new addition to his range - and a successful one. Deep in colour, it's super-ripe on the nose but not overblown. Suave and very concentrated, it has polished tannins and a good deal of complexity. It's clearly modern in style but does not taste over-oaked. Harmonious and long.
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.