2014 Barolo, Monprivato Cà d'Morissio, Riserva, Mascarello Giuseppe & Figlio, Piedmont, Italy

The 2014 Barolo Riserva Monprivato Ca' d' Morissio is the finest wine I have tasted from the Mascarello family in some time. I remember the year very well, as Mauro Mascarello was the only producer in Barolo who refused to show me his vineyard during a cool, rainy summer in which Peronospora was a huge issue. As for the wine, it is superb. Dark and layered, the 2014 offers up an exotic mix of dark fruit, leather, licorice, lavender and dried herbs, all wrapped up with firm but impeccably balanced tannins. In most good years, Ca' d' Morissio needs some cellaring, but that is not the case here.

Drink 2024 - 2039

The Mascarello family and the Monprivato cru have been linked for centuries, since before the discovery of America, as family legend tells it. The current configuration of the family purchased it from Mauro Mascarello's grandfather in 1904. It seems to me that the DNA of the people who farm it and the site itself are inexorably intertwined. With so much experience at their backs, it's no wonder that this wine shines despite a vintage that delivered quite a few curveballs with lower than average temperatures and above average rainfall during the most delicate phases in the vineyard. 

The 2014 Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio is a wine of infinite grace and harmony. The style is delicate, almost fragile, and streamlined for sure. But the bouquet delivers pretty notes of cherry, cassis, cinnamon, licorice, mint, violets, crushed stone and so much more. The family tells me that the special combination of mint and violet that appears so readily on this wine is due to the Michet clone of Nebbiolo featured here. The finish is long and graceful, and you'll notice that pretty freshness too. This is a beauty, and all told, a very special wine.

Drink 2024 - 2050