“I don’t make wines with fantasy names. I don’t make crus, I don’t make wine in barriques, my wines don’t have perfume of vanilla and Limousin oak. I’m the last of the Mohicans.”

This quote from Bartolo Mascarello himself brilliantly captures his dedication to the traditionalism that built Barolo's foundation. Despite enjoying a long standing reputation as a world class wine region, the recipe for producing Barolo has seen its fair share of changes through the years.

Single vineyard plots have long been recognized throughout the region, and have appeared on Barolo labelling for decades, though it is widely accepted that among the first true cru wines were Prunotto’s Bussia and Vietti’s Rocche di Castiglione in 1961. Of course, the purpose of having a Cru in the first place is to recognize that there are some plots that produce higher quality wines than others. Though, without formal boundaries being officially set, these Cru's of yesteryear were ripe for exploitation. It was an issue that was acknowledged in the 1990's and a process that took nearly 20 years to remedy. Today, there is a Burgundy-like cru system called MGA's (Menzione Geografica Aggiuntiva) which have legally delimited these sites since 2010.

Modern Barolo drinkers obsess over these MGA's, and rightly so as there can be dramatic differences. Frustratingly, there can also be a lot of indistinguishable plots as there are 181 MGA's spread throughout Barolo's 11 communes. For better or worse, the MGA system is here to stay, and there is a lot of profitability that comes from highlighting plots. Barolo is not alone in cashing in on this system. We can see this happening in our own backyard as Willamette Valley winemakers command premium pricing for single vineyard wines. In fact, I would argue that single vineyard wines are what define modern wine drinking throughout the world, though that doesn't necessarily makes it traditional to its corresponding region, we've just accepted it as a new normal.

Going against this trend, or more accurately, standing firm as a beacon of traditionalism is Bartolo Mascarello's Barolo. They continue to make a single Barolo bottling, though this is no mere village wine. It is a blend of the MGA's San Lorenzo, Rue and Cannubi from the Barolo commune and the Rocche Di Annunziata in La Morra. The soils between them are a mixture of clay, tufa and sand. To put this in perspective, this would be like a Burgundy winemaker using 1er Cru Les Amoureuses, Musigny Grand Cru, and Clos De Beze Grand Cru for their Bourgogne Rouge if the tradition called for it.

Bartolo Mascarello's Barolo continues to capture the spirit and practices of a bygone epoch since its inception in 1918. The aforementioned quote represents an unwavering stance against the 80's and 90's era where Barolo shifted towards the trends of the time that called for more extraction and usage of new French oak barriques to appease the trending palates of that time.

In the cellar, these prized vineyard sites are co-fermented using the cappello sommerso technique of holding the cap of seeds and skins within the fermenting wine. Combined the total fermentation process lasts between 30-50 days depending on the vintage. The wine ages in the traditional large Slavonian oak casks (botti) for 30 months. It's typically bottled in late July, roughly 3 years after the vintage. It then spends over 1 year maturing in bottle before it is released in September, a full 4 years after harvest. On the heels of a fantastic 2019, 2020 is also destined to be a classic vintage. Conditions were excellent with a mild Winter, while Spring was very wet, followed by a warm summer. It was a earlier to ripen than the 2019 and the overall crop size was slightly lower.

The quantities and distribution of this wine is also steeped in tradition. Rather than capitalizing on its reputation, there is no expansion into other sites and it remains a modest 12 acre property. As has been the case since the 1950's much of their wine is sold to private clients who visit the estate to pick up their allocation. Needless to say, we did not receive many bottles to offer, and waited until this email was distributed to activate it online so as to give Portlanders a better chance at procuring a bottle.