Winemaker Notes
Deep garnet-red. Aromas of sage, rosemary, and other earthy hints. Rich texture, round-soft tannins.
Serve with red meat roasts, truffle dishes, all game and ripe cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Showing a medium-dark garnet color, the Parusso 2019 Barolo Mosconi (with 5,500 bottles made) reveals some of those distinctive aromas of skins and stems that are the hallmark of the house style. These give the wine a broader and richer profile that fits well in a generally more concentrated vintage such as this. Red rose petal, crème de cassis and dried cherry skin emerge from the bouquet. This wine promises a long aging evolution.
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James Suckling
A fresh and fluid Mosconi with dried flowers, light plum and sliced strawberry character. Medium body. Creamy tannins and a silky finish. Seductive.
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Vinous
The 2019 Barolo Mosconi is a deep, powerful wine. Huge swaths of tannin are pretty overpowering at this stage. Then again, this is Mosconi, where Barolos are typically quite potent. It will be interesting to see if the fruit emerges over time. Dark plum, menthol, leather sage and graphite lend character. I suspect the 2019 will be stellar if given the time to come together.
Rating:94+ -
Wine Enthusiast
The fragrant nose reveals a captivating array of oak derived spices: clove, allspice, cinnamon, licorice and vanilla as well as lush fruit aromas of liquored cherries, blood orange and wildflowers. Distinctive and singular, the wine showcases the winemaker’s touch. The palate offers ripe fruits, harmonious oak spices and fine tannins needing a little more time
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.