2010 Barolo Villero

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.