Barolo Monprivato, Guiseppe Mascarello

 Trøffelaften Centropa 4. november 2025

Det var jo denne fra 2016 som jeg ser nå blir litt urettferdig å sammenligne mot !

Barolo Monprivato 1989, G. Mascarello

Centro Storico 12.11.16 Intens ruby farge med mørk kjerne og vandig kant. Henger på glasset, tung og intens nese av sorte, mørke og fullmodne kirsebær. Det som slår deg er den gode konsentrasjonen, en enorm superlang 60 sekunders + ettersmak. Dyp nese som utvikler seg fantastisk i glasset, solmoden cassis, nesten bordeaux`s i snittet med elegante solide og integrerte tanniner. Tror denne vinen har drukket bra fra dag en og vil drikke fabelaktig i 20 år til. Etter 20 minutter i glasset utvikler den mere klassiske nebbearomaer, fra cassis til nype, til rose og fjærlette strøk av tjærebåt. Men etter 10 minutter igjen lukter det Cote Rotie, Napa og Bordeaux ! For en vin ! En universell vin, en vin fra alle verdens hjørner, her kommer kvalitet framfor terroir. Dette er den beste vinen jeg ha smakt fra Piemonte, slår den beste Bruno og den beste Giacomo ! 97-99p  

Barolo Monprivato 2018, Guiseppe Mascarello

Ung og transparent med små tanniner, fløyel i munnen, mangler litt trøkk og en lett versjon av Monprivato. Snill og deilig, slør av jordbær, elegant og usikker på videre lagring. 92 poeng.

Barolo Monprivato 2001, Guiseppe Mascarello

Korket. NR. Vinklubben hadde 2 flasker i november 2024 på vinmøte hos Øyvind; 

Barolo Monprivato 2001, G. Mascarello 

Korket. NR. Men Øyvind hentet en ny flaske !

Barolo Monprivato 2001, G. Mascarello / flaske nr. 2;

Kjølig stil med fremdeles solide Serralunga kraftige tanniner. Men samtidig elegant og floral med innslag av modne jordbær. Fragrant, deilig vin og en god flaske. 94 poeng 

Barolo Monprivato 2012, Guiseppe Mascarello

Kjølig og mangler eleganse, lett i munnen og ikke veldig kompleks. Rustikk, tørrer på finish. Bekrefter også hva Galloni sier at de hadde en dipp i kvalitet mellom 2009 og 2019. 90 poeng

Barolo Monprivato 2017, Guiseppe Mascarello

Igjen denne litt kjølige og upersonlige stilen. God struktur, grove tanniner, noe floralitet, men mangler endel balanse og strever litt. 91 poeng.

Vinous.com:

The Mascarello family’s history dates to at least the 1800s, when they farmed vineyards for Giulia Falletti di Barolo, the French-born aristocrat and philanthropist who is credited with bringing the French winemaking techniques to Italy that transformed Barolo from a sweet wine to a dry wine. Family patriarch Giuseppe Mascarello (1830-1902) acquired the family’s first vineyard, a parcel in Pianpolvere, in 1881. His son, Maurizio (Morissio), bought the estate’s core holding in Monprivato in 1904. Nestled in the middle of the Barolo appellation, in the heart of Castiglione Falletto, Monprivato is a stunning vineyard capable of yielding wines of supreme elegance that can also age effortlessly for decades.

Mauro Mascarello worked with his father for years before taking over most of the day-to-day management of the family estate in 1967. In 1970, after years of trying, a young and rebellious Mauro Mascarello finally convinced his father, Giuseppe (Gepin, 1897–1983), to let him make a single-vineyard Barolo from the family’s Monprivato vineyard. It was a radical departure from the past. Up until then, the Mascarellos had made a single Barolo blended from several different vineyards, as was the custom at the time. Indeed, readers fortunate enough to have tasted wines like the 1961, 1964 and 1967 Barolo know just how special those wines are, even today. But the young Mauro Mascarello wanted to follow the emerging fashion of vineyard-designated Barolos that had started in the early 1960s. Before embarking on the new project, Gepin told Mauro that if he was going to make a single-vineyard Barolo from Monprivato, he should at least use the best part of the vineyard. These were blocks planted with the rare Michet clone, which Mauro’s grandfather, Maurizio, had first planted in the 1920s, and that Gepin later expanded in the 1960s through a massale selection.

In his first vintage, Mauro Mascarello fashioned an epic Barolo Monprivato that would plant the seed for a Riserva many years later. Readers who have tasted the 1970 Barolo Monprivato know what an extraordinary wine it is. A remarkable string of vintages followed. The 1971, 1978, 1982 and 1985 are all early reference points. The style was and remains rigorously traditional: long fermentations and lengthy aging in cask. During this time, the estate had a small but loyal following. In 1979, Mauro Mascarello bought back a portion of the family vineyards from his uncle, Natale, the first of a series of transactions that led to Mascarello’s total of six hectares in Monprivato, a near-monopole.

Along the way, Mauro Mascarello decided he wanted to create a Riserva from Monprivato, a wine he would bottle only in the best years. In the early 1980s, Mauro Mascarello began his own project to select and then propagate the best material from Gepin’s plants. That led to a major replanting of Michet in 1988 and then the first Riserva Cà d’Morissio from these new blocks. Mauro Mascarello dedicated his new Riserva to his grandfather, Morissio.

Hard as it may seem to believe today, the winery fell into a state of near oblivion during the 1980s and 1990s, as the more lush, extroverted wines of the modern school became increasingly popular. The wines did not suffer, though. Many of the vintages of the late-1990s and 2000s were superb.

Appreciation for the Mascarello Barolos increased starting in the mid-2000s, as consumers and the press began to tire of modern wines. Like all historic estates in Piedmont, Mascarello rode the extraordinary surge of popularity Piedmont wines have enjoyed since. But not everything has been easy. Quality dipped with the 2009 vintage and several subsequent inconsistent vintages before rebounding in a big way with the 2020, a wine I hope signals a permanent return to form.