2004 Barolo Monprivato

Giuseppe Mascarello & Figlio, one of Barolo's benchmark estates, has arrived at a crossroads. I have been buying, cellaring and drinking these wines for more than twenty years going to back my college days in Boston, where the wines were widely available and well priced. Since the 2009 vintage, quality has dipped below the level that had been customary here for several decades. Mauro Mascarello has been at the helm of his family's estate since the late 1960s/early 1970s, which makes him the most tenured active winemaker in Piedmont I know. Mascarello's contributions to Barolo are far beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say Mascarello has crafted numerous epic, thrilling wines over the last five decades. I have been fortunate to taste most, if not all of them. But there are worrying signs, including the state of the Monprivato vineyard, which is in dire need of help. Mauro Mascarello has more than done his part. The responsibility now must fall to his children, Giuseppe and Elena, to bring back the estate to the level Barolo lovers have been accustomed to. I have tasted and drunk many of Mauro Mascarello's Barolos recently, including epic bottles of the 1996 Monprivato and Ca' d'Morissio, both of which were unforgettable. Then there were bottles of the 1982, 1989 and 2004, all of them stellar. Sadly, I don't see anywhere near that level of quality here today.

These are two pretty wines from one of Barolo's most historic families. The 2011 Monprivato is unusual in that it is quite expressive young, while the 2008 Barolo Riserva Ca'd' Morissio captures the sensuality that is such a signature of the vintage. As always, the Mascarello Barolos are bottled on the late side, so these are the current releases.

Giuseppe Mascarello e Figlio, one of Piedmont's most venerable estates, appears to be going through a bit of a rough patch of late. The 2010 Barolos are better than the 2009s, but don't show the superb pedigree of either the estate's best wines or the vintage. As I have said and written many times before, Mascarello's Barolos are among the hardest wines to judge when they are young. It is always possible these Barolos will surprise in the future, but today the chances of that happening appear slim. To be sure, the estate's best recent vintages, including, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 were all far more expressive at a similar point in their lives. The Mascarello Barolos remain some of my personal favorites. Recent bottles of the 1989, 2004 and 2008 have all been sublime. Sadly, I see little of what makes those wines so special in the 2010s.

Two thousand nine was a hot year but not extremely so, according to Mascarello, producing "elegant, agreeable wines with good but not great structure, to drink on the young side.The wines lack a bit of complexity and the calcaire did not give great spine, but the wines should still age well."Two thousand eight is more to Mascarello's taste, and he described the young 2010s as "more complex and richer in extract."Although I don't usually taste unfinished wines here, Mascarello showed me a sample of the 2010 Barolo Monprivato; it showed exciting potential. Also recommended:2012 Dolcetto d'Alba Santo Stefano di Perno.

Mauro Mascarello's 2009 Barolos are baffling now that they are in bottle. I have tasted the 2009s three times since the wines were bottled last summer and have yet to find the depth or complexity I saw when the wines were in barrel. Historically, Mascarello's Barolos have often been tough to fully understand at the outset, although earlier vintages have always shown signs of their ultimate potential. I had hoped to see the 2009s blossom, as other vintages have, but that has yet to happen. Today, all four 2009 Barolos are diluted, lack depth and show feeble color intensity, even within the standards of what is normal at this address. It is impossible for an outsider to know exactly the reason or reasons why these wines have turned out as they have, but my sense is that the 2009s will deteriorate from here, rather than improve. Therefore, I can no longer recommend the Mascarello 2009s. I strongly suggest readers considering the 2009s taste them before buying them. Readers who may already own the 2009s should taste them immediately. I have to admit, it is with great sadness that I write these words, as the Mascarello Barolos have been personal favorites for decades. The 2009s simply miss the mark.

Two thousand nine was a hot year but not extremely so, according to Mascarello, producing "elegant, agreeable wines with good but not great structure, to drink on the young side. The wines lack a bit of complexity and the calcaire did not give great spine, but the wines should still age well." Two thousand eight is more to Mascarello's taste, and he described the young 2010s as "more complex and richer in extract." Although I don't usually taste unfinished wines here, Mascarello showed me a sample of the 2010 Barolo Monprivato; it showed exciting potential. Also recommended: 2012 Dolcetto d'Alba Santo Stefano di Perno.

A morning spent with Mauro Mascarello and his family is another of the highlights of my year. As is always the case, I tasted through all the Barolos still in barrel. I find it fascinating to follow the evolution of these wines, some of the toughest to understand when young. Like most of his colleagues, Mauro Mascarello bottles in the summer, so I will report one these wines once again later this year.

This wine was tasted over dinner, November 2014

Two thousand nine was a hot year but not extremely so, according to Mascarello, producing "elegant, agreeable wines with good but not great structure, to drink on the young side.The wines lack a bit of complexity and the calcaire did not give great spine, but the wines should still age well."Two thousand eight is more to Mascarello's taste, and he described the young 2010s as "more complex and richer in extract."Although I don't usually taste unfinished wines here, Mascarello showed me a sample of the 2010 Barolo Monprivato; it showed exciting potential. Also recommended:2012 Dolcetto d'Alba Santo Stefano di Perno.

A morning spent with Mauro Mascarello and his family is another of the highlights of my year. As is always the case, I tasted through all the Barolos still in barrel. I find it fascinating to follow the evolution of these wines, some of the toughest to understand when young. Like most of his colleagues, Mauro Mascarello bottles in the summer, so I will report one these wines once again later this year.

Mauro Mascarello's 2008 Baroli have closed down considerably since I tasted them from cask in November, 2011. The 2008s were just bottled a few months ago. I expect they will be more expressive in another 6-12 months. Overall, the 2008s are mid-weight wines built on grace and perfume. I don't see the pure power of 2006 nor the opulence of 2007, to name two recent vintages, but wines that are built more along the lines of 2005. I expect the 2008s will age on their acidity rather than fruit, but these wines always have a way of transforming in bottle, so we will see. There is little doubt Nebbiolo did better here than Barbera in 2008, as was true throughout Piemonte. The 2008 Barberas are good, but average, or perhaps slightly better than that within the context of the estate's long, established history.

One of the great tastings in Piemonte is sitting down with Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe, and going through all of their wines from barrel. Vintage 2008 is looking good so far. The wines have great transparency to site and plenty of personality. Mascarello planned to bottle the 2008 Baroli during the summer of 2012.

Mauro Mascarello told me he loves the 2008 Barolos, but the wines won't be bottled until next summer. He's also a fan of the 2007 vintage. "The Barolos don't have great structure but they're elegant and aromatic," he said. "They'll be very agreeable for early drinking but will also age well. They're strong in extract, and the tannins are round and sweet." Mascarello told me that the 2009s will be less concentrated than the two preceding vintages and well suited for relatively early drinking. It's early days of course, but Mascarello believes that 2010 "has the possibility to be great." Given the structure and perfume of these Barolos, I was a little surprised when Mascarello told me that acidity levels here are normally between 5.3 and 5.8 grams per liter, which is not especially high. "At 6 grams, the wines become too hard," he explained. Also recommended: 2009 Dolceto d'Alba Bricco (86).

This is a stellar showing from Mauro and Giuseppe Mascarello. The 2007 Baroli are stunning now that they are in bottle, but the Barberas are equally worthy of attention. As always, the style is very traditional, but in 2007 the steady warmth of the vintage has given theses wines an extra dimension of fleshiness. The 2007 Monprivato in particular is shaping up to be another legendary Barolo from Mascarello.

Proprietor Mauro Mascarello is best known for his Baroli, but his entry- level wines also merit considerable attention. The wines are always released on the late side, so finding the time to review them can be a challenge, hence their inclusion in this issue. I also had a chance to taste Mascarello's 2007 Baroli from cask and they are living up to the immense promise I sensed when I first sampled them a few years ago.

Mauro Mascarello told me he loves the 2008 Barolos, but the wines won't be bottled until next summer. He's also a fan of the 2007 vintage. "The Barolos don't have great structure but they're elegant and aromatic," he said. "They'll be very agreeable for early drinking but will also age well. They're strong in extract, and the tannins are round and sweet." Mascarello told me that the 2009s will be less concentrated than the two preceding vintages and well suited for relatively early drinking. It's early days of course, but Mascarello believes that 2010 "has the possibility to be great." Given the structure and perfume of these Barolos, I was a little surprised when Mascarello told me that acidity levels here are normally between 5.3 and 5.8 grams per liter, which is not especially high. "At 6 grams, the wines become too hard," he explained. Also recommended: 2009 Dolceto d'Alba Bricco (86).

Proprietor Mauro Mascarello makes some of the most compelling, traditional wines in Piedmont. Mascarello's signature Barolo, Monprivato, rarely shows well when young, yet it has a proven ability to transform magically in the bottle, something I have witnessed first-hand with more vintages than I can remember. The irony us that by the time the wines start showing well; they are long gone from the market or have appreciated dramatically in price. On my most recent trip to Piedmont I was quite surprised to hear of the admiration two of Barolos top modern winemakers have for Monprivato.

Mauro Mascarello did not bottle his flagship Riserva, Ca' d' Morissio in 2005. While that decision alone does not always translate into higher quality for Monprivato, it does in the 2005, a Barolo that continues to impress. My only regret is not having bought more of the 2005 when it was first released.

Mauro Mascarello didn't make a Barolo Villero in 2005 because this fruit picked after the rain got too ripe and was affected by botrytis. But Mascarello is much happier about his flagship Monprivato. "The 2005s are less powerful than the 2004s, but they're as complex and dense," he told me. "And they're more perfumed and agreeable for early drinking, even if they will also age well." As in recent years, I find the Barolo Monprivato (and the Ca d'Morrisio, from a portion of the Monprivato hillside replanted in 1988 with a selected clone of michet) to be the highlights in this cellar. But I must add that the barberas I tasted in September showed less of the sometimes-offputting pungent herbal character of past vintages, which is all to the good.

Proprietor Mauro Mascarello has turned out two very pretty 2005 Barolos, but did not bottle his Villero as he waited until after the rains to pick the fruit and by that time the quality in the vineyard had been compromised. There is also no Cà d'Morissio in 2005, as that juice was blended into the Monprivato. Although Mascarello is best known for his Barolos, his entry-level wines also merit serious consideration. Although Mascarello's Barberas aren't as well-priced as they once were, they are capable of delivering tons of class and elegance. Readers who want to learn more about this iconic Barolo estate may want to check out my recent article on this site.

Mauro Mascarello is one of the most fascinating personalities in Piedmont. He is also arguably the longest-tenured active winemaker in the Langhe, having been directly responsible for all aspects of production at his family's estate since 1970, which makes him an invaluable resource on the traditions of the region. Today's younger generation of high-end producers speak with great reverence about Mascarello and even more so about his father Gepin who was a legend in these parts. Mascarello was an internationally-renowned producer decades before today's big names were even making wines under their own labels. Twenty years ago, Mascarello's signature Barolo Monprivato was one of the most expensive Barolos on the market. Then the new-age style became dominant during the 1990s and the estate languished in perception, but not quality. In recent times Mascarello has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity which is long overdue. Prices have gone up, but the Barolo Monprivato in particular remains a steal relative to other world-class wines. Monprivato is one of the handful of Italian wines than can hold its own with the best being made anywhere in the world.

I would not describe Mauro Mascarello as a contrarian on the subject of vintage quality, but he does sometimes appear to be functioning in his own microclimate. "Two thousand four gave very ripe grapes that produced perfumed, balanced, fine wines that taste very good today and have a complete structure. But I'm not sure they have the stuffing to be great. " He added that he nonetheless prefers 2004 and 2003 to his 2001s, which he finds to be open now. "But the 2000s are finer than the 2001s, as their tannins are less rude. " Mascarello still carries out a full three weeks of maceration for his Barolos, including 10 to 12 days of post-fermentation time on the skins. He told me he normally starts drinking his Barolos five or six years after the bottling.

I would not describe Mauro Mascarello as a contrarian on the subject of vintage quality, but he does sometimes appear to be functioning in his own microclimate. "Two thousand four gave very ripe grapes that produced perfumed, balanced, fine wines that taste very good today and have a complete structure. But I'm not sure they have the stuffing to be great. " He added that he nonetheless prefers 2004 and 2003 to his 2001s, which he finds to be open now. "But the 2000s are finer than the 2001s, as their tannins are less rude. " Mascarello still carries out a full three weeks of maceration for his Barolos, including 10 to 12 days of post-fermentation time on the skins. He told me he normally starts drinking his Barolos five or six years after the bottling.

Mauro Mascarello is one of the few producers who prefers h is 2003 Barolos to h is 2001s as he finds they have more power and intensity while also maintaining finesse and a sense of classic ism. The wines certainly have more power, but I am not sure I would agree they have more finesse. In any event, h is 2003 Barolos are among the best of the vintage, in particular the Santo Stefano di Perno and Monprivato. I also tasted the 2003 Ca' d' Mor issio from barrel a few months ago, and it is shaping up to be a remarkably rich wine very much in keeping with the style of the vintage. Mascarello hasn't decided when he will release the 2001 Ca' d' Mor issio, but it, too, is prom ising, as is h is entire range of 2004 Barolos.

Mauro Mascarello's 2001s showed very well. I have had the privilege of attending more than my fair share of Monprivato verticals, but something tells me future tastings are going to be even more special, as the number of great examples of this wine has never been higher. Imagine tasting the 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 in another 10-15 years' time!

I would not describe Mauro Mascarello as a contrarian on the subject of vintage quality, but he does sometimes appear to be functioning in his own microclimate. "Two thousand four gave very ripe grapes that produced perfumed, balanced, fine wines that taste very good today and have a complete structure. But I'm not sure they have the stuffing to be great. " He added that he nonetheless prefers 2004 and 2003 to his 2001s, which he finds to be open now. "But the 2000s are finer than the 2001s, as their tannins are less rude. " Mascarello still carries out a full three weeks of maceration for his Barolos, including 10 to 12 days of post-fermentation time on the skins. He told me he normally starts drinking his Barolos five or six years after the bottling.

At a recent meeting of my local tasting group the focus was on the wines of Giuseppe Mascarello, one of Barolo's historic producers. For this event we were fortunate to have Mauro Mascarello as our guest. The focus of the evening was Mascarello's most famous wine, Monprivato, and his new luxury bottling the Riserva Ca' d'Morissio. Chef Silvano Fiorindo, a veteran of Cipriani in New York, Buenos Aires and his native Venice, prepared an exquisite meal to accompany the wines. Chef Fiorindo's menu started with a thinly sliced of carpaccio of sirloin. Seared on the outside and cooked perfectly to medium-rare in the center, it was an ideal dish with which to begin the dinner. He then prepared a zucchini risotto that paid homage to his Venetian roots in its style. That was followed by delicious sautéed veal cutlets served with shitake mushrooms, a dish that paired beautifully with our flight of Monprivatos from the 1980s. We finished with a selection of artisan cheesed with which we lingered over the final wines. It was a great evening of wine, food and conversation.

Mauro Mascarello is one of the few remaining traditionalist producers in Barolo. Mascarello owns what is surely one of the most prized vineyards in all of Piedmont, Monprivato, which occupies a stupendous position, sheltered by Bricco Boschis to the north and Bricco Rocche to the south. From this 6 hectare monopole holding Mascarello produces his Barolo Monprivato, a wine of tremendous aging potential which has been among the region's benchmark wines for decades.Mascarello's Barolos are vinified along traditional lines, with fermentation lasting 18-20 days in years with less structure to 20-25 days in more important vintages. The wines then do malolactic in steel and are aged for 36 months in large Slavonian oak casks of various sizes. The wines are bottled without clarification or filtration in the summer of the fourth year following the harvest. Mascarello's Riserva Ca'd' Morissio spends anywhere between 48-52 months in oak and is released when Mascarello feels the wine is ready. Of the terroirs Mascarello works with, Villero is the most feminine, early maturing and easy to understand. Santo Stefano gives the biggest, most old-style wines, with tannins that can sometimes seem quite hard and rough, while Monprivato is somewhere in the middle. When Monprivato is young its tannins and general lack of color can make it a tough wine to evaluate. But make no mistake about it, Monprivato is one of the most long-lived, expressive and profound Barolos around. Among the top Barolo bottlings, it also remains one of the best relative values in the region.

Mauro Mascarello loves the 1999 vintage, but notes that the wines are a bit tough and hard to taste today. They're more structured than the '98s, he adds, but also rich and fat. Vintage 2000 was a hot year, and a good September with some well-timed rainfall resulted in sugar-laden grapes with very good phenolic maturity. The wines are easier than the '98s, whose tannins are not as round as those of the '99s or '00s, Mascarello adds. The 2001s were also very ripe, he told me, and the crop level was high. Unfortunately, Mascarello did not present the 2001s; rather, he showed me essentially the same Barolos I tasted two years earlier, though of course this time the 1999s and 2000s were in bottle. (Douglas Polaner Selections, New York, NY; W. J. Deutsch & Sons, White Plains, NY; and Classic Wine Imports, Brookline, MA)

I continue to be charmed by Mauro Mascarello's superb Barolo Monprivato, from Castiglione Falletto, a scented, aromatically fascinating wine that's typically understated in its youth but shows a classical Barolo evolution with 10 or 15 years in the bottle. The Ca d'Morissio, from a portion of the Monprivato hillside replanted in 1988 with a selected clone of michet, may be even more perfumed than the "regular" Monprivato. Mascarello describes it as a more feminine style of wine, with more sweetness in its youth, but a couple of the vintages I tasted in September seemed especially penetrating and backward. The Ca d'Morissio is likely to become one of the region's stellar examples as the vines mature.Mascarello's favorite recent vintage remains the 1996; he allows that the following four vintages fall a bit short in structure and power. "Ninety ninety-seven is an elegant wine with decent structure," Mascarello told me, "while '98 is harmonious and nicely balanced. The '99s are round, elegant wines. Technical ripeness came early but real ripeness of polyphenols came later. So we had lots of alcohol without a huge structure. For many people, wood tannins had a tendency to dry these wines. Two thousand is a good year, not far off in style from 1999, but without great structure or aging potential."

Mauro Mascarello's 1999 Barolos are absolutely brilliant. In particular, the 1999 Monprivato is one of the finest wines of this great Barolo vintage.

At a recent meeting of my local tasting group the focus was on the wines of Giuseppe Mascarello, one of Barolo's historic producers. For this event we were fortunate to have Mauro Mascarello as our guest. The focus of the evening was Mascarello's most famous wine, Monprivato, and his new luxury bottling the Riserva Ca' d'Morissio. Chef Silvano Fiorindo, a veteran of Cipriani in New York, Buenos Aires and his native Venice, prepared an exquisite meal to accompany the wines. Chef Fiorindo's menu started with a thinly sliced of carpaccio of sirloin. Seared on the outside and cooked perfectly to medium-rare in the center, it was an ideal dish with which to begin the dinner. He then prepared a zucchini risotto that paid homage to his Venetian roots in its style. That was followed by delicious sautéed veal cutlets served with shitake mushrooms, a dish that paired beautifully with our flight of Monprivatos from the 1980s. We finished with a selection of artisan cheesed with which we lingered over the final wines. It was a great evening of wine, food and conversation.

The following wines were tasted at a class on Barolo and Barbaresco I held at Crush Wine and Spirits in mid-town Manhattan in February 2006. The evening provided a great opportunity to check in on a few new releases as well as taste some of the region's benchmark wines from nearly all of the most important vintages back to 1961.

These wines were tasted at a class on Barolo and Barbaresco I held at Crush Wine and Spirits in mid-town Manhattan in February 2006. The evening provided a great opportunity to check in on a few new releases as well as taste some of the region's benchmark wines from nearly all of the most important vintages back to 1961.

Mauro Mascarello perfectly embodies the hard work ethic for which the Piedmontese are so famous. He is perhaps the only person I know who would describe Vinitaly, the chaotic trade show, as ‘vacation,' since it is time away from his vineyards and cellar. Mascarello has been personally making the wines at his estate since 1967 and owns one of the most impressive track records in Piedmont. That notwithstanding, Mascarello's Barolos continue to be less well-known than they deserve. Perhaps that is because his cellar is in the town of Monchiero, closer to Dogliani than to the Barolo-producing zones. Or perhaps it is Mascarello's more introspective personality and traditional approach that have resulted in his wines not being duly recognized. Whatever the reasons, there can be no doubt that Mascarello's wines, and in particular his signature Barolo, Monprivato, are among the region's top bottlings. Fortunately for consumers prices have remained very fair here and the wines represent some of the best values in the region. I consistently find this producer's Barolos to be the hardest to accurately assess in their youths. Often unimpressive at first, they are among the most fascinating wines to follow because their evolution in the bottle can be extraordinary. With time the wines frequently blossom into profound expressions of Nebbiolo. Needless to say, the additional perspective gained from re-visiting these wines is always illuminating. Mascarello has turned out three outstanding Barolos in the 1999 vintage. In my blind tastings the wines performed brilliantly, proving that the best traditionally made wines can more than hold their own alongside the finest modern-styled wines. Mascarello's wines show a purity of expression and finesse that puts them among the most successful wines of the vintage. As I have written here before, Mascarello's 1999 Monprivato is a sensational effort. It continues to evolve positively and my sense is that history will judge it as one of the great wines of the vintage as well as one of the most profound Monprivatos of all time. Mascarello has decided against bottling his 2002 Barolos, but consumers will find an excellent range of recent vintages on the market today. I will have an in-depth look at this producer's older vintages in Issue 8, with notes on more than a dozen wines going back to 1967. “1999 was an excellent vintage for us,” says Mauro Mascarello. “Although the summer was not as hot as 1998, overall the weather was more balanced, allowing us to achieve good ripeness in the vineyards. We began harvesting our Nebbiolos on October 10th, which is the optimal period to harvest fruit that is ripe, with good concentration as well as perfume. It is very much a classic vintage. The wines are complex and potent, yet they also have a sense of proportion with sweet tannins that provide finesse.” Nothing much has changed here in terms of vinification which remains very traditional. The wines see a fermentation/maceration of 20-25 days with two pumpovers a day. Malolactic fermentation takes place in steel and the malos are typically long, with some tanks finishing their malos the following spring. The wines complete their aging in large oak casks and are bottled without fining or filtration during the summer of the fourth year following the harvest.

In May of this year I attended two very special tastings at Cru in New York. Winemakers Roberto Conterno and Mauro Mascarello were in town to present extensive verticals of their Barolos. The first tasting took place in the afternoon and featured current releases as well as a few older vintages. Although I generally avoid trade events because they don't allow enough time to accurately assess each wine, this sit-down tasting, which was hosted by importer Doug Polaner, was extremely well organized. Cru Wine Director Robert Bohr and his staff did an outstanding job in coordinating the service of the wines, which was no small feat. Between the afternoon tasting and the dinner that followed, I don't think I have ever tasted so many profound and emotionally moving wines in a single day! The wines were double decanted a few hours prior to serving.

Mauro Mascarello led the group though several flights of his most famous wine, Monprivato, as well as his newer Riserva bottling, Ca' d' Morissio. The Giuseppe Mascarello winery boasts a rich lineage that goes back to 1881 when Giuseppe Mascarello purchased his first plot of land in Monforte. His son Maurizio purchased vineyards in Monprivato in 1904 that remain the core of the family's holdings.

After having spent many years working at the estate with his father, Giuseppe II, Mauro Mascarello made his first wines in 1967. In 1970 Mauro began to vinify the grapes from his various vineyards separately. Although Mascarello defines the decade between 1968 and 1977 as one in which he experimented with various vinification techniques, today the wines are made in a very traditional manner. “There aren't many of us traditionalists left,” jokes Mascarello. Mauro has recently been joined in the winery by his son Giuseppe, ensuring that this estate's heritage will continue into the future.

The Monprivato vineyard, located in Castiglione Falletto, is one of the great sites in Piedmont. The Mascarello family has owned their plots, which measure just over six hectares, for over 100 years. Within Monprivato there had always been a special parcel from which Mascarello hoped to produce a riserva. In the mid-1980s Mascarello began a quest that would take him over four years to identify the best and most suitable clones of the Michet varietal to plant in the vineyard. The parcel was finally re-planted in 1988 and Mascarello named the new wine Ca' d'Morissio (house of Maurizio) in honor of his grandfather.

Both wines are traditionally made and see a long fermentation lasting between 18-25 days, depending on the vintage, and extended aging in Slavonian oak casks of about 36 months for the Monprivato and at least an additional 12 months for the Ca' d'Morissio.

The first vintage for Ca' d'Morissio was 1993, although just a few bottles were made, while full production began in 1995. Mascarello releases this wine only when he believes there is a noticeable difference in quality between Monprivato and Ca' d'Morissio. Other recent vintages include 1997 and the as yet unreleased 1996. There is no Ca' d'Morissio for vintages 1998-2000, although there is a 2001.

Mauro Mascarello loves the 1999 vintage, but notes that the wines are a bit tough and hard to taste today. They're more structured than the '98s, he adds, but also rich and fat. Vintage 2000 was a hot year, and a good September with some well-timed rainfall resulted in sugar-laden grapes with very good phenolic maturity. The wines are easier than the '98s, whose tannins are not as round as those of the '99s or '00s, Mascarello adds. The 2001s were also very ripe, he told me, and the crop level was high. Unfortunately, Mascarello did not present the 2001s; rather, he showed me essentially the same Barolos I tasted two years earlier, though of course this time the 1999s and 2000s were in bottle. (Douglas Polaner Selections, New York, NY; W. J. Deutsch & Sons, White Plains, NY; and Classic Wine Imports, Brookline, MA)

I continue to be charmed by Mauro Mascarello's superb Barolo Monprivato, from Castiglione Falletto, a scented, aromatically fascinating wine that's typically understated in its youth but shows a classical Barolo evolution with 10 or 15 years in the bottle. The Ca d'Morissio, from a portion of the Monprivato hillside replanted in 1988 with a selected clone of michet, may be even more perfumed than the "regular" Monprivato. Mascarello describes it as a more feminine style of wine, with more sweetness in its youth, but a couple of the vintages I tasted in September seemed especially penetrating and backward. The Ca d'Morissio is likely to become one of the region's stellar examples as the vines mature.Mascarello's favorite recent vintage remains the 1996; he allows that the following four vintages fall a bit short in structure and power. "Ninety ninety-seven is an elegant wine with decent structure," Mascarello told me, "while '98 is harmonious and nicely balanced. The '99s are round, elegant wines. Technical ripeness came early but real ripeness of polyphenols came later. So we had lots of alcohol without a huge structure. For many people, wood tannins had a tendency to dry these wines. Two thousand is a good year, not far off in style from 1999, but without great structure or aging potential."

1998 has always been an interesting vintage for Barolo. Caught between the more hyped 1996 and 1997 on one end, and 2000 and 2001 on the other, the 1998s have often been overlooked. It also didn't help that the wines were first released during a period global economic malaise. While 1998 is not a truly iconic, legendary vintage, these Barolos are great choices for medium-term drinking as a number of wines are entering their early maturity, making them great choices for readers who are cellaring wines from Piedmont's sturdier vintages such as 1996, 1999 and 2001.

Piedmont experienced mostly warm weather in 1998 with spells of drought, though nowhere near the extremes seen in 1997. The wines have always been perfumed and accessible, with an attractive softness to the fruit. Even better, the vast majority of the wines have never shut down to the extent that wines from cooler vintages often do. The 1998s are extremely consistent across the board, and that level of outstanding quality may very well end up being the vintage's strongest attribute. As is typically the case, the Barolos of La Morra and Barolo are the most forward, while those of Serralunga are the freshest. Most of these wines were from my cellar, purchased and cellared since release, although I tasted a few of the wines a second time with the producers.

At a recent meeting of my local tasting group the focus was on the wines of Giuseppe Mascarello, one of Barolo's historic producers. For this event we were fortunate to have Mauro Mascarello as our guest. The focus of the evening was Mascarello's most famous wine, Monprivato, and his new luxury bottling the Riserva Ca' d'Morissio. Chef Silvano Fiorindo, a veteran of Cipriani in New York, Buenos Aires and his native Venice, prepared an exquisite meal to accompany the wines. Chef Fiorindo's menu started with a thinly sliced of carpaccio of sirloin. Seared on the outside and cooked perfectly to medium-rare in the center, it was an ideal dish with which to begin the dinner. He then prepared a zucchini risotto that paid homage to his Venetian roots in its style. That was followed by delicious sautéed veal cutlets served with shitake mushrooms, a dish that paired beautifully with our flight of Monprivatos from the 1980s. We finished with a selection of artisan cheesed with which we lingered over the final wines. It was a great evening of wine, food and conversation.

In May of this year I attended two very special tastings at Cru in New York. Winemakers Roberto Conterno and Mauro Mascarello were in town to present extensive verticals of their Barolos. The first tasting took place in the afternoon and featured current releases as well as a few older vintages. Although I generally avoid trade events because they don't allow enough time to accurately assess each wine, this sit-down tasting, which was hosted by importer Doug Polaner, was extremely well organized. Cru Wine Director Robert Bohr and his staff did an outstanding job in coordinating the service of the wines, which was no small feat. Between the afternoon tasting and the dinner that followed, I don't think I have ever tasted so many profound and emotionally moving wines in a single day! The wines were double decanted a few hours prior to serving.

Mauro Mascarello led the group though several flights of his most famous wine, Monprivato, as well as his newer Riserva bottling, Ca' d' Morissio. The Giuseppe Mascarello winery boasts a rich lineage that goes back to 1881 when Giuseppe Mascarello purchased his first plot of land in Monforte. His son Maurizio purchased vineyards in Monprivato in 1904 that remain the core of the family's holdings.

After having spent many years working at the estate with his father, Giuseppe II, Mauro Mascarello made his first wines in 1967. In 1970 Mauro began to vinify the grapes from his various vineyards separately. Although Mascarello defines the decade between 1968 and 1977 as one in which he experimented with various vinification techniques, today the wines are made in a very traditional manner. “There aren't many of us traditionalists left,” jokes Mascarello. Mauro has recently been joined in the winery by his son Giuseppe, ensuring that this estate's heritage will continue into the future.

The Monprivato vineyard, located in Castiglione Falletto, is one of the great sites in Piedmont. The Mascarello family has owned their plots, which measure just over six hectares, for over 100 years. Within Monprivato there had always been a special parcel from which Mascarello hoped to produce a riserva. In the mid-1980s Mascarello began a quest that would take him over four years to identify the best and most suitable clones of the Michet varietal to plant in the vineyard. The parcel was finally re-planted in 1988 and Mascarello named the new wine Ca' d'Morissio (house of Maurizio) in honor of his grandfather.

Both wines are traditionally made and see a long fermentation lasting between 18-25 days, depending on the vintage, and extended aging in Slavonian oak casks of about 36 months for the Monprivato and at least an additional 12 months for the Ca' d'Morissio.

The first vintage for Ca' d'Morissio was 1993, although just a few bottles were made, while full production began in 1995. Mascarello releases this wine only when he believes there is a noticeable difference in quality between Monprivato and Ca' d'Morissio. Other recent vintages include 1997 and the as yet unreleased 1996. There is no Ca' d'Morissio for vintages 1998-2000, although there is a 2001.

I continue to be charmed by Mauro Mascarello's superb Barolo Monprivato, from Castiglione Falletto, a scented, aromatically fascinating wine that's typically understated in its youth but shows a classical Barolo evolution with 10 or 15 years in the bottle. The Ca d'Morissio, from a portion of the Monprivato hillside replanted in 1988 with a selected clone of michet, may be even more perfumed than the "regular" Monprivato. Mascarello describes it as a more feminine style of wine, with more sweetness in its youth, but a couple of the vintages I tasted in September seemed especially penetrating and backward. The Ca d'Morissio is likely to become one of the region's stellar examples as the vines mature.Mascarello's favorite recent vintage remains the 1996; he allows that the following four vintages fall a bit short in structure and power. "Ninety ninety-seven is an elegant wine with decent structure," Mascarello told me, "while '98 is harmonious and nicely balanced. The '99s are round, elegant wines. Technical ripeness came early but real ripeness of polyphenols came later. So we had lots of alcohol without a huge structure. For many people, wood tannins had a tendency to dry these wines. Two thousand is a good year, not far off in style from 1999, but without great structure or aging potential."

Following my tasting of current and upcoming releases with the Mascarello family, Mauro Mascarello staged a vertical tasting of his great Barolo Monprivato, covering all of the great vintages back to 1970; I'll publish the results of this impressive vertical in an upcoming issue. Among Mascarello current wines, I was especially taken with the quality of his new Ca d'Morissio bottling, from Monprivato vines replanted in 1988 with a selected clone of michet. Thanks to the very low crop levels, I would never have guessed that the recent vintages of this wine (it has been made in '93, '95, '96 and '97) were from young vines. Interestingly, Mascarello prefers '97 and '96 for nebbiolo; he feels that '98 and '99, perhaps due to the larger crop levels, were less powerful and dense and therefore more successful for barbera and dolcetto.

A recent gathering of passionate Nebbiolo lovers in Boston provided a great opportunity to open a wide range of wines spanning four decades and the full gamut of styles. The wines were critically evaluated and discussed without food after which they were heartily enjoyed with a variety of delicious homemade dishes, among them our hosts' spectacular braised short ribs, which were so exceptional they nearly stole the show. The wines were decanted for several hours prior to being served and tasted blind. Given the casual nature of the evening notes on these wines should be interpreted as impressions rather than formal tasting notes.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

Following my tasting of current and upcoming releases with the Mascarello family, Mauro Mascarello staged a vertical tasting of his great Barolo Monprivato, covering all of the great vintages back to 1970; I'll publish the results of this impressive vertical in an upcoming issue. Among Mascarello current wines, I was especially taken with the quality of his new Ca d'Morissio bottling, from Monprivato vines replanted in 1988 with a selected clone of michet. Thanks to the very low crop levels, I would never have guessed that the recent vintages of this wine (it has been made in '93, '95, '96 and '97) were from young vines. Interestingly, Mascarello prefers '97 and '96 for nebbiolo; he feels that '98 and '99, perhaps due to the larger crop levels, were less powerful and dense and therefore more successful for barbera and dolcetto.

Mauro Mascarello recently completely a laborious 11-year project designed to improve the quality of wine coming from his great six hectare Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto. The objective of this undertaking was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began with a one hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine Mascarello alternatively refers to as Monprivato Cascina Mascarello or Monprivato Vigna Mascarello or simply Monprivato Riserva comes entirely from this plot, and was produced for the first time in 1993. As my notes below indicate, it appears to be a more seriously structured wine than the "regular" Monprivato without any loss of the vineyard ineffable perfume (both of these wines, with their sappy red berry and floral complexity, frequently remind me of great Burgundies). In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, says Mascarello, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the basic Monprivato bottling includes no rose. I find these traditionally made Barolos to be quite tannic from barrel, but in strong vintages like '95, '96 and '97--and partly owing to the recent vineyard improvement program--the wines appear to have the flesh to support their structure.

Mauro Mascarello's 1996 Barolos are among the wines of the vintage. Readers, especially those who are newer to Piedmont, will find this hard to believe, but when Mascarello made the 1996s his estate languished in recognition next to the attention being lavished on the more progressive producers of that era. I had the good fortune of living in Boston at the time, a market that always had excellent distribution of the wines, and I never missed a chance to drink them. Today, the estate in the midst of a generational transition, a time that is always delicate.

At a recent meeting of my local tasting group the focus was on the wines of Giuseppe Mascarello, one of Barolo's historic producers. For this event we were fortunate to have Mauro Mascarello as our guest. The focus of the evening was Mascarello's most famous wine, Monprivato, and his new luxury bottling the Riserva Ca' d'Morissio. Chef Silvano Fiorindo, a veteran of Cipriani in New York, Buenos Aires and his native Venice, prepared an exquisite meal to accompany the wines. Chef Fiorindo's menu started with a thinly sliced of carpaccio of sirloin. Seared on the outside and cooked perfectly to medium-rare in the center, it was an ideal dish with which to begin the dinner. He then prepared a zucchini risotto that paid homage to his Venetian roots in its style. That was followed by delicious sautéed veal cutlets served with shitake mushrooms, a dish that paired beautifully with our flight of Monprivatos from the 1980s. We finished with a selection of artisan cheesed with which we lingered over the final wines. It was a great evening of wine, food and conversation.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

Following my tasting of current and upcoming releases with the Mascarello family, Mauro Mascarello staged a vertical tasting of his great Barolo Monprivato, covering all of the great vintages back to 1970; I'll publish the results of this impressive vertical in an upcoming issue. Among Mascarello current wines, I was especially taken with the quality of his new Ca d'Morissio bottling, from Monprivato vines replanted in 1988 with a selected clone of michet. Thanks to the very low crop levels, I would never have guessed that the recent vintages of this wine (it has been made in '93, '95, '96 and '97) were from young vines. Interestingly, Mascarello prefers '97 and '96 for nebbiolo; he feels that '98 and '99, perhaps due to the larger crop levels, were less powerful and dense and therefore more successful for barbera and dolcetto.

Mauro Mascarello recently completely a laborious 11-year project designed to improve the quality of wine coming from his great six hectare Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto. The objective of this undertaking was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began with a one hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine Mascarello alternatively refers to as Monprivato Cascina Mascarello or Monprivato Vigna Mascarello or simply Monprivato Riserva comes entirely from this plot, and was produced for the first time in 1993. As my notes below indicate, it appears to be a more seriously structured wine than the "regular" Monprivato without any loss of the vineyard ineffable perfume (both of these wines, with their sappy red berry and floral complexity, frequently remind me of great Burgundies). In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, says Mascarello, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the basic Monprivato bottling includes no rose. I find these traditionally made Barolos to be quite tannic from barrel, but in strong vintages like '95, '96 and '97--and partly owing to the recent vineyard improvement program--the wines appear to have the flesh to support their structure.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

Following my tasting of current and upcoming releases with the Mascarello family, Mauro Mascarello staged a vertical tasting of his great Barolo Monprivato, covering all of the great vintages back to 1970; I'll publish the results of this impressive vertical in an upcoming issue. Among Mascarello current wines, I was especially taken with the quality of his new Ca d'Morissio bottling, from Monprivato vines replanted in 1988 with a selected clone of michet. Thanks to the very low crop levels, I would never have guessed that the recent vintages of this wine (it has been made in '93, '95, '96 and '97) were from young vines. Interestingly, Mascarello prefers '97 and '96 for nebbiolo; he feels that '98 and '99, perhaps due to the larger crop levels, were less powerful and dense and therefore more successful for barbera and dolcetto.

Mauro Mascarello recently completely a laborious 11-year project designed to improve the quality of wine coming from his great six hectare Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto. The objective of this undertaking was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began with a one hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine Mascarello alternatively refers to as Monprivato Cascina Mascarello or Monprivato Vigna Mascarello or simply Monprivato Riserva comes entirely from this plot, and was produced for the first time in 1993. As my notes below indicate, it appears to be a more seriously structured wine than the "regular" Monprivato without any loss of the vineyard ineffable perfume (both of these wines, with their sappy red berry and floral complexity, frequently remind me of great Burgundies). In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, says Mascarello, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the basic Monprivato bottling includes no rose. I find these traditionally made Barolos to be quite tannic from barrel, but in strong vintages like '95, '96 and '97--and partly owing to the recent vineyard improvement program--the wines appear to have the flesh to support their structure.

In May of this year I attended two very special tastings at Cru in New York. Winemakers Roberto Conterno and Mauro Mascarello were in town to present extensive verticals of their Barolos. The first tasting took place in the afternoon and featured current releases as well as a few older vintages. Although I generally avoid trade events because they don't allow enough time to accurately assess each wine, this sit-down tasting, which was hosted by importer Doug Polaner, was extremely well organized. Cru Wine Director Robert Bohr and his staff did an outstanding job in coordinating the service of the wines, which was no small feat. Between the afternoon tasting and the dinner that followed, I don't think I have ever tasted so many profound and emotionally moving wines in a single day! The wines were double decanted a few hours prior to serving.

Mauro Mascarello led the group though several flights of his most famous wine, Monprivato, as well as his newer Riserva bottling, Ca' d' Morissio. The Giuseppe Mascarello winery boasts a rich lineage that goes back to 1881 when Giuseppe Mascarello purchased his first plot of land in Monforte. His son Maurizio purchased vineyards in Monprivato in 1904 that remain the core of the family's holdings.

After having spent many years working at the estate with his father, Giuseppe II, Mauro Mascarello made his first wines in 1967. In 1970 Mauro began to vinify the grapes from his various vineyards separately. Although Mascarello defines the decade between 1968 and 1977 as one in which he experimented with various vinification techniques, today the wines are made in a very traditional manner. “There aren't many of us traditionalists left,” jokes Mascarello. Mauro has recently been joined in the winery by his son Giuseppe, ensuring that this estate's heritage will continue into the future.

The Monprivato vineyard, located in Castiglione Falletto, is one of the great sites in Piedmont. The Mascarello family has owned their plots, which measure just over six hectares, for over 100 years. Within Monprivato there had always been a special parcel from which Mascarello hoped to produce a riserva. In the mid-1980s Mascarello began a quest that would take him over four years to identify the best and most suitable clones of the Michet varietal to plant in the vineyard. The parcel was finally re-planted in 1988 and Mascarello named the new wine Ca' d'Morissio (house of Maurizio) in honor of his grandfather.

Both wines are traditionally made and see a long fermentation lasting between 18-25 days, depending on the vintage, and extended aging in Slavonian oak casks of about 36 months for the Monprivato and at least an additional 12 months for the Ca' d'Morissio.

The first vintage for Ca' d'Morissio was 1993, although just a few bottles were made, while full production began in 1995. Mascarello releases this wine only when he believes there is a noticeable difference in quality between Monprivato and Ca' d'Morissio. Other recent vintages include 1997 and the as yet unreleased 1996. There is no Ca' d'Morissio for vintages 1998-2000, although there is a 2001.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

I have had the privilege to drink – not just taste – Giuseppe Mascarello's 1989 and 1990 Barolo Monprivato on several occasions this year, but that notwithstanding I was frankly not at all prepared for the sensational showing of these bottles from the Mascarello cellars. In one of the greatest weeks of my wine-drinking life when I tasted nearly all of the icon wines from the 1989 and 1990 vintages in Piedmont, these two Monprivatos stood out for their sheer profoundness.

This incredible dinner was organized around two themes; an in-depth look at several bottlings of the 1964 Dom Pérignon and a survey of Bruno Giacosa’s 1989s and 1990s, with a few bottles added for further perspective. Executive Chef Mark Ladner prepared a fabulous menu to go with our wines.

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants.

Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape.

Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines.

Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines.

I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. [insert Mascarello 2] The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own.

It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively.

Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up.

Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants. Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape. Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines. Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines. I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own. It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively. Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up. Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

Tasted over lunch at Del Posto Ristorante in New York City, December 2007.

This wine was tasted at Daniel during a dinner that was auctioned at the Jackson Hole Wine Auction.

At a recent meeting of my local tasting group the focus was on the wines of Giuseppe Mascarello, one of Barolo's historic producers. For this event we were fortunate to have Mauro Mascarello as our guest. The focus of the evening was Mascarello's most famous wine, Monprivato, and his new luxury bottling the Riserva Ca' d'Morissio. Chef Silvano Fiorindo, a veteran of Cipriani in New York, Buenos Aires and his native Venice, prepared an exquisite meal to accompany the wines. Chef Fiorindo's menu started with a thinly sliced of carpaccio of sirloin. Seared on the outside and cooked perfectly to medium-rare in the center, it was an ideal dish with which to begin the dinner. He then prepared a zucchini risotto that paid homage to his Venetian roots in its style. That was followed by delicious sautéed veal cutlets served with shitake mushrooms, a dish that paired beautifully with our flight of Monprivatos from the 1980s. We finished with a selection of artisan cheesed with which we lingered over the final wines. It was a great evening of wine, food and conversation.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

I have had the privilege to drink – not just taste – Giuseppe Mascarello's 1989 and 1990 Barolo Monprivato on several occasions this year, but that notwithstanding I was frankly not at all prepared for the sensational showing of these bottles from the Mascarello cellars. In one of the greatest weeks of my wine-drinking life when I tasted nearly all of the icon wines from the 1989 and 1990 vintages in Piedmont, these two Monprivatos stood out for their sheer profoundness.

This incredible dinner was organized around two themes; an in-depth look at several bottlings of the 1964 Dom Pérignon and a survey of Bruno Giacosa’s 1989s and 1990s, with a few bottles added for further perspective. Executive Chef Mark Ladner prepared a fabulous menu to go with our wines.

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants. Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape. Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines. Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines. I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own. It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively. Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up. Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants.

Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape.

Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines.

Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines.

I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. [insert Mascarello 2] The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own.

It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively.

Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up.

Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

This wine was tasted as a part of Festa di Barolo 2008.

At a recent meeting of my local tasting group the focus was on the wines of Giuseppe Mascarello, one of Barolo's historic producers. For this event we were fortunate to have Mauro Mascarello as our guest. The focus of the evening was Mascarello's most famous wine, Monprivato, and his new luxury bottling the Riserva Ca' d'Morissio. Chef Silvano Fiorindo, a veteran of Cipriani in New York, Buenos Aires and his native Venice, prepared an exquisite meal to accompany the wines. Chef Fiorindo's menu started with a thinly sliced of carpaccio of sirloin. Seared on the outside and cooked perfectly to medium-rare in the center, it was an ideal dish with which to begin the dinner. He then prepared a zucchini risotto that paid homage to his Venetian roots in its style. That was followed by delicious sautéed veal cutlets served with shitake mushrooms, a dish that paired beautifully with our flight of Monprivatos from the 1980s. We finished with a selection of artisan cheesed with which we lingered over the final wines. It was a great evening of wine, food and conversation.

In May of this year I attended two very special tastings at Cru in New York. Winemakers Roberto Conterno and Mauro Mascarello were in town to present extensive verticals of their Barolos. The first tasting took place in the afternoon and featured current releases as well as a few older vintages. Although I generally avoid trade events because they don't allow enough time to accurately assess each wine, this sit-down tasting, which was hosted by importer Doug Polaner, was extremely well organized. Cru Wine Director Robert Bohr and his staff did an outstanding job in coordinating the service of the wines, which was no small feat. Between the afternoon tasting and the dinner that followed, I don't think I have ever tasted so many profound and emotionally moving wines in a single day! The wines were double decanted a few hours prior to serving.

Mauro Mascarello led the group though several flights of his most famous wine, Monprivato, as well as his newer Riserva bottling, Ca' d' Morissio. The Giuseppe Mascarello winery boasts a rich lineage that goes back to 1881 when Giuseppe Mascarello purchased his first plot of land in Monforte. His son Maurizio purchased vineyards in Monprivato in 1904 that remain the core of the family's holdings.

After having spent many years working at the estate with his father, Giuseppe II, Mauro Mascarello made his first wines in 1967. In 1970 Mauro began to vinify the grapes from his various vineyards separately. Although Mascarello defines the decade between 1968 and 1977 as one in which he experimented with various vinification techniques, today the wines are made in a very traditional manner. “There aren't many of us traditionalists left,” jokes Mascarello. Mauro has recently been joined in the winery by his son Giuseppe, ensuring that this estate's heritage will continue into the future.

The Monprivato vineyard, located in Castiglione Falletto, is one of the great sites in Piedmont. The Mascarello family has owned their plots, which measure just over six hectares, for over 100 years. Within Monprivato there had always been a special parcel from which Mascarello hoped to produce a riserva. In the mid-1980s Mascarello began a quest that would take him over four years to identify the best and most suitable clones of the Michet varietal to plant in the vineyard. The parcel was finally re-planted in 1988 and Mascarello named the new wine Ca' d'Morissio (house of Maurizio) in honor of his grandfather.

Both wines are traditionally made and see a long fermentation lasting between 18-25 days, depending on the vintage, and extended aging in Slavonian oak casks of about 36 months for the Monprivato and at least an additional 12 months for the Ca' d'Morissio.

The first vintage for Ca' d'Morissio was 1993, although just a few bottles were made, while full production began in 1995. Mascarello releases this wine only when he believes there is a noticeable difference in quality between Monprivato and Ca' d'Morissio. Other recent vintages include 1997 and the as yet unreleased 1996. There is no Ca' d'Morissio for vintages 1998-2000, although there is a 2001.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

At a recent meeting of my local tasting group the focus was on the wines of Giuseppe Mascarello, one of Barolo's historic producers. For this event we were fortunate to have Mauro Mascarello as our guest. The focus of the evening was Mascarello's most famous wine, Monprivato, and his new luxury bottling the Riserva Ca' d'Morissio. Chef Silvano Fiorindo, a veteran of Cipriani in New York, Buenos Aires and his native Venice, prepared an exquisite meal to accompany the wines. Chef Fiorindo's menu started with a thinly sliced of carpaccio of sirloin. Seared on the outside and cooked perfectly to medium-rare in the center, it was an ideal dish with which to begin the dinner. He then prepared a zucchini risotto that paid homage to his Venetian roots in its style. That was followed by delicious sautéed veal cutlets served with shitake mushrooms, a dish that paired beautifully with our flight of Monprivatos from the 1980s. We finished with a selection of artisan cheesed with which we lingered over the final wines. It was a great evening of wine, food and conversation.

This intimate dinner with a small group of close friends came together literally at the last minute. Getting a reservation for six on a Saturday night in LA with no notice is not exactly the easiest thing to do, but I was thrilled we were able to get in.

When friends weren’t able to travel to Piedmont this past fall, they did the next best thing and brought Piedmont to their home. This intimate dinner featured a lovingly chosen selection of Piedmontese classics, paired with a fabulous dinner and an ungodly amount of white truffles. What could possibly be better?

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants. Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape. Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines. Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines. I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own. It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively. Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up. Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

At a recent meeting of my local tasting group the focus was on the wines of Giuseppe Mascarello, one of Barolo's historic producers. For this event we were fortunate to have Mauro Mascarello as our guest. The focus of the evening was Mascarello's most famous wine, Monprivato, and his new luxury bottling the Riserva Ca' d'Morissio. Chef Silvano Fiorindo, a veteran of Cipriani in New York, Buenos Aires and his native Venice, prepared an exquisite meal to accompany the wines. Chef Fiorindo's menu started with a thinly sliced of carpaccio of sirloin. Seared on the outside and cooked perfectly to medium-rare in the center, it was an ideal dish with which to begin the dinner. He then prepared a zucchini risotto that paid homage to his Venetian roots in its style. That was followed by delicious sautéed veal cutlets served with shitake mushrooms, a dish that paired beautifully with our flight of Monprivatos from the 1980s. We finished with a selection of artisan cheesed with which we lingered over the final wines. It was a great evening of wine, food and conversation.

The subject of evaluating and rating vintages is one of the favorite topics of discussion among Piedmont lovers, so the opportunity to taste sixteen of the best 1985 Barolos and Barbarescos with a group of hardcore New York Nebbiolo fans made for a truly special evening. Many insiders describe the 1985 vintage as a turning point for the wines. According to Luciano Sandrone “1985 was in many ways the first ‘modern,' hot vintage. The Barolos were uncharacteristically open from the start and have remained accessible.” Giacosa enologist Dante Scaglione says “1985 was the first vintage in which we had wines with very high alcohol. In fact, we wouldn't see such alcohol levels in our wines again until 2003. I view 1985 as a vintage that is ready to drink and one which will not be especially long-lived going forward.” Roberto Conterno had a slightly different take commenting that “I wouldn't necessarily say our wines were accessible from the beginning, however today the 1985s are very expressive and it is a great vintage to drink today.”
Because of the hot growing season and early appeal of the vintage, some have predicted that the wines would not age well. For the most part, I was amazed at how well these Barolos showed. Many of the wines displayed lively color, with rich, sweet fruit, and enough underlying structure to provide balance. While the wines as a group are mature, any suggestion that they are falling apart is simply not borne out by this tasting. How long will the wines last? That is a hard question to answer, since provenance is such a huge variable, but I think it is safe to say that for many of these wines well-stored bottles have another decade of life ahead, and perhaps more. These 1985s offer great drinking today in a more accessible, softer style than either 1982 or 1989, the other two great vintages from the 1980s. Unfortunately we also had a few bad bottles, which I suppose is to be expected in a tasting like this, although the percentage of corked/cooked bottles was higher than we would have liked (around 25%). When these wines were first released fifteen years ago there simply wasn't the kind of attention to temperature-controlled shipping that we have today and several wines appeared to have been damaged by excess heat at some point in their lives. The biggest lesson here for consumers is that there is no substitute for buying these wines on release and cellaring them. Doing so is the only reliable way to minimize the possibility of some very expensive disappointments at a later date. The wines were double-decanted and served blind in flights of four. The identity of the wines was revealed only after all of the wines had been tasted and discussed. Tasting these wines blind with a group of passionate and knowledgeable Barolo fans was a great learning experience, but also a humbling one. Mature Barolos are wines of extraordinary complexity and can fool even the most seasoned palates, as we would be reminded throughout the evening. After the formal tasting was concluded, we enjoyed a delicious dinner, and finished off what was left of these spectacular wines. We also tasted Prunotto's 1985 Barolo Bussia, which was fresh, youthful, and delicious, although it didn't quite reach the level of the best wines on this evening. A great bottle of Bruno Giacosa's 1986 Barolo Riserva Falletto followed, and it was one of the best wines of the night, prompting some of the tasters to wonder if this producer may have been more successful in 1986 than 1985. The evening closed with the outrageous 1983 Recioto from Giuseppe Quintarelli. While I don't have enough experience with this wine to put it into the proper context, I will say that it was breathtaking for its complexity, balance, and sheer appeal. At age 22 it appeared to be magically youthful, and my sense is that this is a wine whose aging potential is to be measured in decades rather than years.

In May of this year I attended two very special tastings at Cru in New York. Winemakers Roberto Conterno and Mauro Mascarello were in town to present extensive verticals of their Barolos. The first tasting took place in the afternoon and featured current releases as well as a few older vintages. Although I generally avoid trade events because they don't allow enough time to accurately assess each wine, this sit-down tasting, which was hosted by importer Doug Polaner, was extremely well organized. Cru Wine Director Robert Bohr and his staff did an outstanding job in coordinating the service of the wines, which was no small feat. Between the afternoon tasting and the dinner that followed, I don't think I have ever tasted so many profound and emotionally moving wines in a single day! The wines were double decanted a few hours prior to serving.

Mauro Mascarello led the group though several flights of his most famous wine, Monprivato, as well as his newer Riserva bottling, Ca' d' Morissio. The Giuseppe Mascarello winery boasts a rich lineage that goes back to 1881 when Giuseppe Mascarello purchased his first plot of land in Monforte. His son Maurizio purchased vineyards in Monprivato in 1904 that remain the core of the family's holdings.

After having spent many years working at the estate with his father, Giuseppe II, Mauro Mascarello made his first wines in 1967. In 1970 Mauro began to vinify the grapes from his various vineyards separately. Although Mascarello defines the decade between 1968 and 1977 as one in which he experimented with various vinification techniques, today the wines are made in a very traditional manner. “There aren't many of us traditionalists left,” jokes Mascarello. Mauro has recently been joined in the winery by his son Giuseppe, ensuring that this estate's heritage will continue into the future.

The Monprivato vineyard, located in Castiglione Falletto, is one of the great sites in Piedmont. The Mascarello family has owned their plots, which measure just over six hectares, for over 100 years. Within Monprivato there had always been a special parcel from which Mascarello hoped to produce a riserva. In the mid-1980s Mascarello began a quest that would take him over four years to identify the best and most suitable clones of the Michet varietal to plant in the vineyard. The parcel was finally re-planted in 1988 and Mascarello named the new wine Ca' d'Morissio (house of Maurizio) in honor of his grandfather.

Both wines are traditionally made and see a long fermentation lasting between 18-25 days, depending on the vintage, and extended aging in Slavonian oak casks of about 36 months for the Monprivato and at least an additional 12 months for the Ca' d'Morissio.

The first vintage for Ca' d'Morissio was 1993, although just a few bottles were made, while full production began in 1995. Mascarello releases this wine only when he believes there is a noticeable difference in quality between Monprivato and Ca' d'Morissio. Other recent vintages include 1997 and the as yet unreleased 1996. There is no Ca' d'Morissio for vintages 1998-2000, although there is a 2001.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

This wine was tasted at La Festa del Barolo 2011 at Del Posto, New York, in March 2011

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants. Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape. Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines. Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines. I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own. It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively. Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up. Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants.

Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape.

Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines.

Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines.

I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. [insert Mascarello 2] The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own.

It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively.

Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up.

Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

At a recent meeting of my local tasting group the focus was on the wines of Giuseppe Mascarello, one of Barolo's historic producers. For this event we were fortunate to have Mauro Mascarello as our guest. The focus of the evening was Mascarello's most famous wine, Monprivato, and his new luxury bottling the Riserva Ca' d'Morissio. Chef Silvano Fiorindo, a veteran of Cipriani in New York, Buenos Aires and his native Venice, prepared an exquisite meal to accompany the wines. Chef Fiorindo's menu started with a thinly sliced of carpaccio of sirloin. Seared on the outside and cooked perfectly to medium-rare in the center, it was an ideal dish with which to begin the dinner. He then prepared a zucchini risotto that paid homage to his Venetian roots in its style. That was followed by delicious sautéed veal cutlets served with shitake mushrooms, a dish that paired beautifully with our flight of Monprivatos from the 1980s. We finished with a selection of artisan cheesed with which we lingered over the final wines. It was a great evening of wine, food and conversation.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants.

Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape.

Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines.

Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines.

I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. [insert Mascarello 2] The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own.

It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively.

Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up.

Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants. Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape. Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines. Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines. I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own. It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively. Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up. Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

In May of this year I attended two very special tastings at Cru in New York. Winemakers Roberto Conterno and Mauro Mascarello were in town to present extensive verticals of their Barolos. The first tasting took place in the afternoon and featured current releases as well as a few older vintages. Although I generally avoid trade events because they don't allow enough time to accurately assess each wine, this sit-down tasting, which was hosted by importer Doug Polaner, was extremely well organized. Cru Wine Director Robert Bohr and his staff did an outstanding job in coordinating the service of the wines, which was no small feat. Between the afternoon tasting and the dinner that followed, I don't think I have ever tasted so many profound and emotionally moving wines in a single day! The wines were double decanted a few hours prior to serving.

Mauro Mascarello led the group though several flights of his most famous wine, Monprivato, as well as his newer Riserva bottling, Ca' d' Morissio. The Giuseppe Mascarello winery boasts a rich lineage that goes back to 1881 when Giuseppe Mascarello purchased his first plot of land in Monforte. His son Maurizio purchased vineyards in Monprivato in 1904 that remain the core of the family's holdings.

After having spent many years working at the estate with his father, Giuseppe II, Mauro Mascarello made his first wines in 1967. In 1970 Mauro began to vinify the grapes from his various vineyards separately. Although Mascarello defines the decade between 1968 and 1977 as one in which he experimented with various vinification techniques, today the wines are made in a very traditional manner. “There aren't many of us traditionalists left,” jokes Mascarello. Mauro has recently been joined in the winery by his son Giuseppe, ensuring that this estate's heritage will continue into the future.

The Monprivato vineyard, located in Castiglione Falletto, is one of the great sites in Piedmont. The Mascarello family has owned their plots, which measure just over six hectares, for over 100 years. Within Monprivato there had always been a special parcel from which Mascarello hoped to produce a riserva. In the mid-1980s Mascarello began a quest that would take him over four years to identify the best and most suitable clones of the Michet varietal to plant in the vineyard. The parcel was finally re-planted in 1988 and Mascarello named the new wine Ca' d'Morissio (house of Maurizio) in honor of his grandfather.

Both wines are traditionally made and see a long fermentation lasting between 18-25 days, depending on the vintage, and extended aging in Slavonian oak casks of about 36 months for the Monprivato and at least an additional 12 months for the Ca' d'Morissio.

The first vintage for Ca' d'Morissio was 1993, although just a few bottles were made, while full production began in 1995. Mascarello releases this wine only when he believes there is a noticeable difference in quality between Monprivato and Ca' d'Morissio. Other recent vintages include 1997 and the as yet unreleased 1996. There is no Ca' d'Morissio for vintages 1998-2000, although there is a 2001.

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants.

Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape.

Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines.

Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines.

I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. [insert Mascarello 2] The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own.

It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively.

Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up.

Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

This wine was tasted at the Second Annual Truffle Charity Dinner in December 2008.

1978 in Piedmont remains one of the most historic vintages in the world the world of fine, collectible wine. Even today, at thirty years of age, well-preserved bottles remain positively youthful, with plenty of life ahead of them. Yet virtually no one could have ever imagined the harvest would turn out as it eventually did. An irregular bud break that year acted as nature's version of a green harvest. The plants carried very little fruit into a summer that was especially cool, even by the standards of the time. Needless to say, early prospects were not encouraging. Then, miraculously, the region saw a month of intense, uninterrupted sunshine and heat beginning in early September that allowed the fruit to ripen perfectly. The hot daytime temperatures were balanced by cool nights, just the type of weather Nebbiolo thrives in. Because yields were low, all of the energy the plants received was channeled into a tiny amount of fruit. At harvest time the grapes were thick-skinned and contained relatively little juice. The wines showed intense color, expressive aromatics and ripe fruit, buffered by imposing tannins. Incredibly, these are qualities the wines still have today!

Usually tastings like these tend to focus on the icon wines of the vintage, which I suppose is natural. As much as I love drinking those bottles, I especially enjoyed this dinner as we had a few top-tier wines mixed in with lesser known bottlings. Everyone at the table was impressed by the strong showing of the wines, especially those we expected the least from. Readers who want to learn more about the vintage might like to take a look at Vintage Retrospective: The 1978 Barolos and Barbarescos, and A Memorable Evening of Barolo and Barbaresco: 1978 – 1990, as well as the vinous.com database, which contains recent notes on over thirty wines from the vintage. I would like to thank Marty Neschis for organizing this fun, informal tasting at Pepolino, a popular Manhattan restaurant.

This wine was tasted as a part of Festa di Barolo 2008.

For most observers 1978 occupies a hallowed place among the legendary vintages in Piedmont. From a purely historical perspective 1978 is also a fascinating vintage to study because it is the last important vintage in which the wines were largely made with traditional methods, both in the vineyards and in the cellar. These wines pre-date the arrival of the more modern style of winemaking which in the 1980s would begin to change the way many estates vinified and aged their wines. A recent dinner in New York with a group of die-hard Nebbiolo fanatics provided a great opportunity to re-visit many of the vintage's benchmark wines. As often happens, extraordinary vintages are the result of unpredictable and unexpected climactic conditions. “1978 was a very strange year,” says Mauro Mascarello. “The spring was quite damp, which resulted in a delayed and irregular flowering. The plants were carrying only about one-half of their normal amount of fruit. We basically had no summer, as the weather remained cool, rainy and foggy all the way through August. It really looked like it would be a terrible vintage. Then, all of a sudden, on the first of September the weather turned, and we had uninterrupted heat all the way through to October, with our harvest taking place in the second half of October.” The hot weather fully ripened the little fruit that remained and the naturally low yields gave some of the most concentrated, memorable wines ever made These 1978s show the extraordinary longevity that the best Barolos and Barbarescos offer. I was amazed at how youthful the wines were, an opinion shared by most, if not all, of the other tasters. Many wines displayed a lively, healthy color and appeared to be still full of life. Critics of traditionally made wines would say that the 1978s are an example of how these wines are never really ready to drink, and certainly the wines have required a great deal of patience. However, after having tasted more than twenty wines from this vintage over the last few months I can only conclude that the 1978s have proven to be well worth the effort of waiting. Well-stored bottles will provide the emotionally moving drinking experience that only a few of the world's great wines can offer. The wines were decanted several hours prior to serving and were tasted non-blind. While researching this article I had the opportunity to taste several other 1978s and also I include notes on those wines.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants.

Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape.

Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines.

Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines.

I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. [insert Mascarello 2] The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own.

It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively.

Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up.

Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants.

Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape.

Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines.

Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines.

I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. [insert Mascarello 2] The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own.

It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively.

Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up.

Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)

I think it was the 1945 Conterno Barolo. Or maybe it was the 1931 Borgogno Barolo. Maybe the 1970 Mascarello Barolo Monprivato. Those are just a few of the most memorable bottles I have had the privilege of sharing with Il Professore. Over the years I have also bought quite a bit of wine from Il Professore, the collector I consider the world's greatest authority on traditionally made Barolo and Barbaresco. Those bottles, which include numerous examples of pristine wines from the 1950s through the 1980s, are the backbone of my cellar and have played a huge role in my own education. Needless to say, I never miss an opportunity to share dinner and a few bottles with Il Professore. Read the full article here.

This incredible tasting of Barolos from Giuseppe Mascarello - originally conceived as a survey of the Michet clone of Nebbiolo - spanned five decades going back to 1967, and included a number of benchmark wines such as the 1970, 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 Monprivatos plus a complete vertical of the estate's Barolo Riserva Monprivato Cà d'Morissio. Virtually all of the older vintages were shipped over from the estate, which made this afternoon quite special, as provenance was unparalleled. Proprietor Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe were on hand to lend their commentary to a group of Barolo aficionados that included sommeliers from a number of New York City's very finest restaurants.

Mascarello's Barolo Monprivato remains largely an insider's wine. Oddly, that wasn't always the case. Twenty years ago, Monprivato was widely considered one of Piedmont's most prestigious Barolos, and commanded a price to match. In the mid-1980s and early 1990s the modernist movement began to sweep through Barolo, bringing with it considerable attention to a group of passionate young producers who challenged many of the long-standing assumptions on how Barolo should be made, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. The modern-style Barolos were exuberant, flashy wines that attracted a new generation of wine lovers and in so doing created more buzz and sheer excitement than Piedmont had ever experienced. Sadly, the accolades these Barolos received came at great expense to the wines of more traditional producers rather than being viewed simply as different and equally valid expressions of the multi-faceted Nebbiolo grape.

Barolo (and Barbaresco, too) was in the midst of nothing less than a revolution. To be sure, some of the traditionally-minded wineries needed a wake-up call; their yields were too high, the barrels often dirty and the cellars unkempt, all of which were reflected in wines of uneven quality. A handful of estates though, including Mascarello, lost an enormous amount of visibility despite boasting a decades-long track record of exceptional wines.

Today, modern and traditional styles have largely converged as producers learned to take the best from both approaches. Along the way Mauro Mascarello continued to make noteworthy Barolos in a rigorously traditional fashion and, as a result, Piedmont fans are rediscovering this once-neglected property. Even though the Mascarello winery went through a period of obscurity, I always find it fascinating that the current generation of younger producers often speaks with great respect and reverence about Giuseppe Mascarello, the man and winemaker. Pricing has moved slightly over the years such that until very recently Monprivato was arguably the most undervalued Barolo among the region's cellar worthy, iconic wines.

I have long been a fan of Mascarello's 1970 Barolo Monprivato. It is one of the greatest wines ever made…in any region. I was completely blown away when I first tasted the wine a number of years ago. Still youthful at nearly 40 years of age, it remains a true monument to the glories of Piedmont and Nebbiolo. As it turns out the 1970 Barolo Monprivato was the genesis of this tasting because it represents an inflection point in the history of the Mascarello winery. [insert Mascarello 2] The first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made at his family's winery was the 1967, another wine that is legendary. Mascarello crafted the 1967 Barolo just as his father had done before him, blending fruit sourced from three vineyards; Monprivato, Villero and Bussia Soprana. The conventional wisdom at the time held that the most complete and complex Barolos were those that combined elements from various sites. Some vineyards were known for their aromatics, others for their fruit and yet other plots were highly regarded for the structural elements they imparted on the wines. But Mascarello yearned for something more. He wanted to make a single-vineyard Barolo, and he thought his Monprivato vineyard was that rare site that could express all of the facets of Nebbiolo on its own.

It took a few years of convincing, but Giuseppe Mascarello finally relented and let his son Mauro make a single-vineyard Barolo in 1970. He also gave Mauro a very valuable piece of advice in directing him to the very best fruit in the Monprivato vineyard. If Mauro was hell-bent on making this wine, Mascarello senior reasoned, he might as well use the parcel in the heart of the vineyard planted with the rare Michet clone, which was known to yield wines of extraordinary power, richness and longevity.

Michet, believed by some observers to be a diseased strain of the more common Lampia clone, is naturally low-yielding and late to ripen, because of the genetic mutations it carries. Mauro Mascarello's grandfather, Maurizio, planted the first Michet clones in his Monprivato vineyard in 1922. A second parcel of Michet was planted by Giuseppe Mascarello in 1963 using the best-performing plants from the original plot, a process known as selezione massale. Mauro Mascarello himself planted the third and fourth selections later, in 1988 and 1994 respectively.

Neither Mascarello could have ever predicted how successful Mauro would be. The 1970 Barolo Monprivato turned out to be the archetype for two wines; the modern-day single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato as well as the 100% Michet Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio, a wine Mascarello finally produced in 1993 after 23 years of research that in reality dates back to vines his grandfather first planted more than 70 years before. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, after 1970 the Michet-only Monprivato was not made again until 1993. This tasting covered all of the Michet Monprivatos plus a number of other reference-point Barolos, just to round out the line-up.

Today, Mascarello typically harvests his Nebbiolo in the second half of October. Fermentation and maceration are carried out with indigenous yeasts and last about three weeks. The wines are aged in cask for roughly three and half years (for the Monprivato) to four and half years (for the Cà d'Morissio). Mascarello only makes the Cà d'Morissio when he feels the wine is sufficiently different from his Monprivato to warrant a separate selection, a decision he typically takes just prior to preparing the wines for bottling. So far five vintages of Cà d'Morissio have been released; 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The 2003 will be released in 2010, followed by the 2004. There will be no 2005 Cà d'Morissio.

In May of this year I attended two very special tastings at Cru in New York. Winemakers Roberto Conterno and Mauro Mascarello were in town to present extensive verticals of their Barolos. The first tasting took place in the afternoon and featured current releases as well as a few older vintages. Although I generally avoid trade events because they don't allow enough time to accurately assess each wine, this sit-down tasting, which was hosted by importer Doug Polaner, was extremely well organized. Cru Wine Director Robert Bohr and his staff did an outstanding job in coordinating the service of the wines, which was no small feat. Between the afternoon tasting and the dinner that followed, I don't think I have ever tasted so many profound and emotionally moving wines in a single day! The wines were double decanted a few hours prior to serving.

Mauro Mascarello led the group though several flights of his most famous wine, Monprivato, as well as his newer Riserva bottling, Ca' d' Morissio. The Giuseppe Mascarello winery boasts a rich lineage that goes back to 1881 when Giuseppe Mascarello purchased his first plot of land in Monforte. His son Maurizio purchased vineyards in Monprivato in 1904 that remain the core of the family's holdings.

After having spent many years working at the estate with his father, Giuseppe II, Mauro Mascarello made his first wines in 1967. In 1970 Mauro began to vinify the grapes from his various vineyards separately. Although Mascarello defines the decade between 1968 and 1977 as one in which he experimented with various vinification techniques, today the wines are made in a very traditional manner. “There aren't many of us traditionalists left,” jokes Mascarello. Mauro has recently been joined in the winery by his son Giuseppe, ensuring that this estate's heritage will continue into the future.

The Monprivato vineyard, located in Castiglione Falletto, is one of the great sites in Piedmont. The Mascarello family has owned their plots, which measure just over six hectares, for over 100 years. Within Monprivato there had always been a special parcel from which Mascarello hoped to produce a riserva. In the mid-1980s Mascarello began a quest that would take him over four years to identify the best and most suitable clones of the Michet varietal to plant in the vineyard. The parcel was finally re-planted in 1988 and Mascarello named the new wine Ca' d'Morissio (house of Maurizio) in honor of his grandfather.

Both wines are traditionally made and see a long fermentation lasting between 18-25 days, depending on the vintage, and extended aging in Slavonian oak casks of about 36 months for the Monprivato and at least an additional 12 months for the Ca' d'Morissio.

The first vintage for Ca' d'Morissio was 1993, although just a few bottles were made, while full production began in 1995. Mascarello releases this wine only when he believes there is a noticeable difference in quality between Monprivato and Ca' d'Morissio. Other recent vintages include 1997 and the as yet unreleased 1996. There is no Ca' d'Morissio for vintages 1998-2000, although there is a 2001.

Mauro Mascarello Barolo Monprivato The Mascarello family impressive southwest-facing Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto has been producing some of the finest traditionally styled Barolos for the past 30 years. The Mascarello Monprivato, the first release of which was the 1970 (Mauro Mascarello took over from his father Giuseppe in 1967), offers a classic Barolo balance of structure and elegance. The young wines, with their sappy red fruit and floral perfume, frequently remind me of great Burgundies. A few vintages of the '90s are deceptively approachable in their youth, but history shows that the optimal drinking plane for the Barolo Monprivato is generally between 7 and 25 years after the harvest, with the more powerful vintages requiring a good 10 to 12 years to approach peak drinkability.The Mascarellos own just over six hectares of nebbiolo vines in Monprivato. (There is one other small owner of vines here, but the Mascarellos are the only producer to use the Monprivato name). The well-drained Monprivato hillside, which the late Renato Ratti ranked in the top category in his famous 1990 map of Barolo vineyards, lies at an altitude of about 280 meters and consists of chalk and clay marl. Mauro Mascarello, who looks younger than his 64 years, is clearly in love with this special site. From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s he carried out an extensive improvement project, the objective of which was to produce more structured and complex wines without sacrificing elegance. He began the work with a one-hectare parcel at the southwest end of the vineyard, pulling up the old michet and lampia vines in 1985 and replacing them with "superselections" of the same two clones in 1988 following the construction of a drainage system in the vineyard and an elaborate soil redistribution project. The wine labelled Ca d'Morissio (the '93, reviewed in Issue 93, was the first release) comes from these vines.In '92, Mascarello uprooted another two hectares planted to the rose clone, and replaced these vines in '96 with the superselections of michet and lampia. The rose, Mascarello explains, contributes elegance and perfume, but offers little in the way of color or structure. Thus, beginning with the '93 vintage, the Monprivato bottling includes no rose.Over the same period, Mascarello has taken a number of steps in the vineyard and at harvest to improve fruit quality, including short pruning, green harvesting and stricter selection at the time of the harvest. Mascarello practices a traditional long but soft maceration, pumping over the must but not punching down the cap, in order to extract maximum varietal character from his nebbiolo fruit. Prior to 1995, vinification took place in cement vats, but since then it has occurred in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine is then aged in Slavonian ovals of 20 to 90 hectoliters. Resisting the trend toward earlier bottling and sale of Barolo, Mascarello continues to bottle the Monprivato between three and a half and four years after the harvest (the '97 was scheduled to be bottled in September.)I tasted the following series of vintages with the Mascarello family last fall at their home and winery in the town of Monchiero, located several miles to the southwest of Castiglione Falletto, along the Tanaro River. (Mauro's son Giuseppe-actually the third Giuseppe, including the original founder of the estate-has worked with his father since 1994.)