2009 Barolo

I am not sure I possess the vocabulary to adequately capture just how much Maria Teresa Mascarello has accomplished in the few short years she has been running her family's estate. Often, the best winemakers recognize the need to develop and make small adjustments rather than radical changes. That is exactly what has happened here over the last few years. One need only to look at Mascarello's entry-level wines to understand that the fruit that is coming into the winery today is cleaner, purer and far more articulate than at any point during this benchmark estate's long history. The Dolcetto and Barbera will floor readers this year for their extraordinary purity, grace and suppleness. And what about the 2010 Barolo? Well, it is easily one of the wines of the vintage and quite possibly the finest Barolo ever made here. I say that having had the 1955, 1958, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1990 all within the last year or two. The 2010 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo is epic. It's as simple as that.

Over the past several years, Maria Teresa Mascarello has turned the previously austere office of her late father into her own inviting, homey place. Happily, her wines, though a bit friendlier in the early going than those of Bartolo, are still classically made, firmly structured and wonderfully perfumed. Maria Teresa describes 2009 as "generous and open: the season was warm but not excessively hot, and the wines have a better balance than the 2007s. We had our normal snowy winter and good spring rains, so there were better water reserves than in 2007." Mascarello, not surprisingly, is a big fan of 2010. "It's the classic vintage everyone waits for," she told me. "The wines are less fleshy but even fresher than the 2008s, very upright in character." The wines here are aged in old 25-to-50-hectoliter foudres, with the occasional new replacement barrel not touching nebbiolo until it's filled with saltwater for a year and used to make barbera for a vintage or two.

Maria Teresa Mascarello cuts a much more laid-back figure than her late father, who was quite outspoken. Other than that, the changes here over the last few years have been quite measured. The old casks have been replaced and there is more emphasis on cleanliness in the cellar and better work in the vineyards, all of which are allowing the wines to unleash their full potential. These wines – the entire range – are distinguished for their exceptional purity and delineation, but the highlight is of course the Barolo, which is still made from a blend of vineyards and aged in cask. It's great to see Maria Teresa Mascarello receiving all the attention she and her wines so richly deserve. Mascarello recently appointed the Rare Wine Company her US importer, which means American consumers should have far better access to these wines than in recent years, and that is great news.