Bartolo Mascarello Barolo 2020 750ml

#49 in Top 100 Wines of Italy, 2024. This vintage is extremely floral, offering restrained violets, linden tree, camphor and balsamic tones and fresh redcurrants. On the full-bodied palate there is great licorice-stick flavor with refreshing, lifted acidity and firm, velvety tannins that are savory and ripe. Bright expression of Barolo, full of detail, more elegant than powerful. Drinkable now, but best after 5 years.

• 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.