2015 Bartolo Mascarello Langhe Freisa

Bartolo Mascarello is a 12-acre estate in Barolo, in the Piedmont region of Italy. The estate was founded in 1919 by Giulio Mascarello and was known as Cantina Mascarello until Giulio’s death in 1981. Giulio’s son Bartolo began working with his father in the late 1940s and Bartolo changed the label to "Bartolo Mascarello” in 1982. Until his passing in 2005 Bartolo continued to make traditional, widely-admired Barolos in the small winery under his house. After his death, his daughter Maria Teresa took over the winery, and she continues to make Barolo in the plain but distinctive style championed by her father and grandfather. The estate produces just one Barolo, which is made from a mix of grapes from the family’s four Nebbiolo plots in Cannubi, Rue, Roche di Annunziata and San Lorenzo. The fruit from the four vineyards is co-fermented in concrete vats by indigenous yeasts without temperature controls. Other wines produced are Barbera d’Alba, Dolcetto d’Alba, Langhe Nebbiolo and Langhe Freisa. Gambero Rosso, Italy’s leading wine journal, has noted that Maria Teresa has followed her father’s legacy “with that special Mascarello way of crafting truly authentic bottles from traditional, unhurried maceration and aging in large barrels. (These are) wines that will endure for decades.”

Piedmont’s name means “foot of the mountain” and it aptly describes Piedmont’s location near the Alps, just east of France and south of Switzerland. For admirers of Nebbiolo wines, Piedmont is Italy’s most exalted region, since it is home to Barolo and Barbaresco. Barolo and Barbaresco are names of towns as well as names of the two most prestigious Piedmont DOCGs. Piedmont, with 142,000 vineyard acres, has seven DOCGs and fifty DOCs, the highest number of DOCS in any Italian wine zone. Despite its relatively northern location, its sometimes cool and frequently foggy weather, Piedmont produces mostly red wines. The Nebbiolo grape thrives in this climate and in fact takes its name from the Italian word for fog, “nebbia.” With its rich buttery food, majestic red wines and complicated vineyard system, Piedmont is often thought of as the Burgundy of Italy. As in Burgundy, Piedmont vineyards generally have well-established boundaries, and the vineyards are often divided into smaller parcels owned by several families. Though Nebbiolo is considered the most “noble” Piedmont grape, Barbera is actually the most widely planted grape. Dolcetto is the third most common red grape. White wines in Piedmont are made from Arneis, Cortese, Erbaluce and Moscato. Though Barolo and Barbaresco are the stars of the region, the easy-to-drink, sparkling “spumante” and “frizzante” wines of the Asti DOCG are the most widely produced. There are also Piedmont Indicazione Geographica Tipica (IGT) wines that are often an innovative blend of traditional and non-traditional grapes. This relatively new appellation status was started in 1992 as an attempt to give an official classification to Italy’s newer blends that do fit the strict requirements of DOC and DOCG classifications. IGT wines may use the name of the region and varietal on their label or in their name.