1990 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo

Martin

This is one of the so called "traditionalist" Barolo makers, IOW you must not count on drinking these young and get any pleasure. And 1990 being a great year, this needs another decade. Real barolo is a bit like real chablis, no point in trying it in the first 10 years.

Another traditionalist reality in Barolo is Rinaldi. Personally, I find Rinaldi and Bartolo Mascarello to be a refreshing change from the big woody seductive stuff that comes out from the rest of the region. Even Altare, who is a brilliant winemaker, uses too much wood to my taste.

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

Did they give Parker a

Well, I'd agree with Mike that this would be an awkward time to try a 1990 Barolo from a traditional maker. I LOVED the '90 B. Mascarello about 2 years ago, but the donor had decanted the day before. Not sure that my opinion would have paralled RP's "super level of ripeness", but there was plenty of red fruit to balance the tannins and acid.

I'd actually put Bartolo (famous for his socialist fervency and devotion to traditional Barolo- "No Barriques, no Berlusconi!" ) in the Top 10 Winemakers Least Likely to Do a "Parker Barrel" category.

Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

I selected Bartolo because he is a traditionalist. I dislike stylish and generic wines. The less barrique the better. But so little fruit ... I admit that tasting it in 1996 was not a good idea, I was just curious. But in 2004 still nothing exciting? BTW, Parker tasted it 1994 and had a fruit bomb. Maybe it was a barrel sample and the wine closed down for decades after bottling. Hopefully it is similar to 1986 Bordeaux: Both La Lagune and Talbot were no fun during the 90ies, but after 2000 they are brilliant (just my experience).

Mike, "refreshing" is a good point. Just think of the lemon and grapefruit flavors in my TNs :-) But seriously, the pro of our tasting group, a winemaker by himself, was quite happy with the wine. When we cursed the wine and called it undrinkable, he was sniffing and smiled: "Hey folks, we should be glad that we have something different, something characteristic". That correlates with your "refreshing change". It was a blind tasting and he recognized the Barolo immediately. After sniffing I thought it was a Brunello, but when tasting I knew it was my wine - a perfect mouth drier.

Anyway, thanks for your comments, Mike.

Martin

Alright Dale. I will decant my next=last bottle well before. But I have only faint hope.

Well, you need not be a fervent socialist to dislike Berlusconi, but this stubborn old man has his merits. He reportedly opposed against installing a phone at his home. But they did anyway, so he always complained about the ringing. I thought he passed away long ago, but obviously he is alive and kicking. Well not paricularly kicking - in his wheelchair. I never got to know him personally. It was his daughter Maria Teresa who sold us the wine ten years ago. To be honest, the wine was as lean and austere when tasting it at the winery as it is today. So we can exclude the possibility that she gave me crap. BTW, the price was 35.000 Lire which is something like $20 or even less when applying the exchange rates of 1994. Now you must struggle to get it for less than $100.

Thanks for your nice comments, Dale. Martin