Massolino Barolo 375ml 2019 (6 Bottles), Langhe, Italy

by Fine Wine Cellars

$372.00 GST Included

AUSTRALIA WIDE SHIPPING INCLUDED

2017 was a really early, warm season, yet cool evenings did provide some rest to the vines of the region. Plum and dark red fruits, licorice and light dried herbs are just some of the characteristics of this wine. Floral notes waft from the glass while the palate is long and elegant. Very good freshness here, especially considering the trying conditions of the vintage. Some may complain that there is not enough power, yet I love the way the fruit and tannins are in perfect balance and caress your palate.

It’s already looking very good, so you can happily drink a bottle or two now + cellar some for up to ten years. I must admit, under lockdown the Cook family have consumed plenty of young Barolo as well as some beautiful aged examples. I have recently loved the 2014 release of this wine (just in front of the 2015 for me). – Ian Cook, FWC.

First produced in 1911, the fruit for Massolino’s classic cuvée is selected from seven sites across roughly seven hectares of prime-sited Serralunga vineyards. The most important of these sites—Briccolina, Collareto, Broglio and Le Turne—are dotted around the town itself; Le Turne borders Margheria while Collareto lies next to Vigna Rionda. So quality real estate, folks—especially at this price. The 2016 also includes a little declassified fruit from Massolino’s Parussi Cru. Vine age varies from 10 to 55 years old.

Importantly, 2016 was the first year that Massolino’s Barolo wines were fermented in large wooden casks, or tini (previously the wines were fermented in concrete). This cuvée spent around 18 days on skins and the final blend spent 30 months in large Slovenian oak casks. The notes below speak for themselves (as does the wine!) One of the best examples of this wine we have shipped. Bibendum (importer).

“The 2017 Barolo is a gorgeous, harmonious wine. In this vintage, the straight Barolo is a bit lighter than normal, as most wines are, but it is so impeccably balanced. Pliant and inviting, the 2017 will be pleasurable to drink in another year or two. The purity of the flavors is just striking. Red berry fruit, rose petal, mint, cinnamon and crushed rose petal are some of the many aromas and flavors that grace this exquisite Barolo from the Massolino family. So many 2017s are marked by sinewy tannins, here, they are especially fine.” 92 points, Antonio Galloni, Vinous

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REVIEWS

Wine & Spirits Magazine ‘Winery of the Year 2010’
“The 2007 Baroli are some of the most viscerally thrilling young wines I have ever tasted. The 2007s are similar to the 2004s, but with more substance. The wines are radiant, intensely perfumed and totally seductive, yet not at all heavy, in a style that offers the textural richness of a warm vintage with the aromatics of a cool year.” Antonio Galloni, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, February 2011

“This is a fabulous set of Baroli from brothers Roberto and Franco Massolino. The wines capture the essence of the vintage – while not being excessively marked by the year – in the house’s classic, firm style. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are done in cement and the wines are aged exclusively in large, neutral casks.” Antonio Galloni, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, Feb 2011

ABOUT

Founded in 1896, Massolino Winery, is based in and around the town of Serralunga, one of the prime sub-zones of the Barolo DOC.

The Massolino family’s greatest asset is of course their 23 hectares of (mostly) Serralunga vineyards, including choice parcels of such famous sites as; Margheria, Parafada and the legendary Vigna Rionda. We say ‘mostly’ as the Massolino clan recently purchased a slice of the Parussi cru in Castiglione Falletto. Serrralunga, on the eastern edge of the Barolo DOCG, produces some of most profound and long lived Barolo. It is the home of great names such as Giacomo Conterno and Bruno Giacosa’s Falletto vineyard. The wines often have an extra stuffing of intense Nebbiolo fruit as well as a remarkable minerality that plays on both the freshness of the tannins and gives the wines a certain ferrous edge when young.

It is fair to say that Massolino holds the most remarkable collection of vineyards in Serralunga, amongst the smaller, quality focused producers anyway. The quality strides at this estate over the last 10-15 years have been remarkable with significant advances made, particularly in the vineyards. Certainly there has also been refinements in the cellars, firstly by Franco Massolino and then by current winemaker Giovanni Angeli (ex Vajra) who has been working with Franco since the 2005 harvest. As always however, it has been the work in the vineyards and the search for expressive and perfectly ripe fruit that has driven the rise in quality at this estate.

The resultant improvement here has been very good news for both the commune and Barolo in general. Today the wines of Massolino sit comfortably among the finest of the region – they are wines of wonderful purity and elegance. They are exclusively aged in large casks, so they are ‘traditional’ and yet they offer the best of the “old” and “new” worlds: pure, aromatic, textural, deeply flavoured wines that are at the same time precise, vibrant and distinctly regional. These are wines that score extremely highly on our deliciousness scale. Equally important, these wines are remarkably well priced when compared to the other top producers of the area.

Fine Wine Cellars

On the one hand, our role as a merchant of all things wine & spirits could not be simpler. We aim to source the most delicious, the most authentic, and the highest quality products possible from Australia and around the world in order to offer them to our clients. We live or die by how well we perform this task. Of course things are rarely as simple or as easy as they seem. Hunting for wines & spirits is no different. Apart from the months spent travelling, countless days and evenings spent tasting and the outrageous wine expenditure in the name of ‘research’, sourcing quality wine and spirits requires expertise and experience. Understanding the potential of a producer and their products is much more than just a slurp and a spit.

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