Massolino Barolo DOCG 2015 750ml

This is the bread-and-butter wine for the folks at Massolino, and great care is taken to make sure they get it right year after year. The 2015 Barolo is almost all fruit from Serralunga d’Alba (this township makes up 99% of the blend), with a tiny part from Castiglione Falletto. Fruit comes from five vineyard sites, including Briccolina, Collaretto, Broglio and Le Turne, all in Serralunga d’Alba. The tiny part of Castiglione Falletto fruit comes from the Parussi cru. The complex nature of the blend represents old-school Barolo tradition, and it works beautifully in a warm vintage such as this. (That Serralunga d’Alba’s rich marlstone soil keeps the moisture of the vintage locked within.) This is a full and exuberant expression with a well-defined profile of spice, rusty nail, potting soil and truffle. Overall, this vintage is accessible, soft and delicious from the start.

• 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.