Elio Grasso Barolo Ginestra Vigna Casa Mate 2015 750ml

There is slightly more structure to the 2015 Barolo Ginestra Casa Maté than to the Gavarini Chiniera of the same vintage, and the only differences here are the soils and that this fruit is harvested about ten days later. It’s a pretty fascinating demonstration of the power of the single vineyard. The Gavarini Chiniera parcel offers slightly sandier soils, whereas this site is composed of more clay. In rainy years, the Gavarini Chiniera vineyard drains more effectively, whereas the Ginestra’s soil retains more moisture in the hot and dry vintages. As a result, in vintages such as this one, Ginestra shows a more compact nature and, in general, provides more impact and more structure. This is a very robust expression, extremely linear and tight. The Ginestra Casa Maté narrowly wins this round. It’s another beautiful Barolo.

• Country: Italy
• Region: Piedmont
• Appellation: Barolo
• Size: 750ml
• Color: Red

Varietal

Nebbiolo

The Nebbiolo grape varietal is widely understood to be the fruit responsible for Italy’s finest aged wines. However, its popularity and reliability as a grape which gives out outstanding flavors and aromas has led it to be planted in many countries around the world, with much success. These purple grapes are distinguishable by the fact that they take on a milky dust as they begin to reach maturity, leading many to claim that this is the reason for their unusual name, which means ‘fog’ in Italian. Nebbiolo grapes produce wines which have a wide range of beautiful and fascinating flavors, the most common of which are rich, dark and complex, such as violet, truffle, tobacco and prunes. They are generally aged for many years to balance out their characteristics, as their natural tannin levels tend to be very high.