Italy · Piedmont

Bartolo Mascarello

Bartolo Mascarello was one of Barolo's most revered and principled winemakers, a champion of traditional Barolo production and a fierce opponent of the Barolo Wars modernist movement that swept the region in the 1980s and 1990s. The small estate in Barolo village has been making wine since Giulio Mascarello founded it in 1919, and Bartolo — who ran it from 1945 until his death in 2005 — maintained absolute consistency: no single-vineyard bottlings (a blend of village parcels in Cannubi, Torriglione, Rue, and San Lorenzo), very long macerations in large wooden tanks, and aging in large Slavonian oak botti. His daughter Maria Teresa continues this philosophy with devotion. The wine is a blend of Barolo's best village vineyards rather than a single-site expression, and this complexity — combined with the finesse and longevity of traditional winemaking — has made it one of the appellation's most consistently magnificent bottles. Production is around 20,000–25,000 bottles per year. At auction, Bartolo Mascarello is among Italy's most sought-after wines, with older vintages from the 1950s through 1980s considered among the greatest Italian wines ever made.