Cantina Bartolo Mascarello is one of Barolo’s most revered domaines. It was founded in 1919 by Giulio Mascarello, who had been trained by his father Bartolomeo, the cellarmaster at the Cantina Sociale di Barolo. In a novel move at the time, Giulio borrowed money and started his own winery. In those days it was still relatively easy to acquire great parcels in great vineyards. Giulio was followed by his son Bartolo, who had spent the war years fighting the Germans as a partisan in the Langhe hills. Bartolo Mascarello maintained an equally staunch defence of classically crafted Barolos in the years of ascendancy of the so-called Barolo ‘modernists’, and described himself as the ‘last of the Mohicans’. He gained particular fame/notoriety for a ‘no barrique no Berlusconi’ label.

Bartolo’s daughter Maria-Teresa Mascarello began to make wine at her father’s side in 1993, and when he died in 2005 she took over completely. Just like her father, she is a staunch defender of tradition, and maintains an iron grip on quality. The cantina only makes one Barolo, a cross-site blend, which she insists is the best way to make Barolo. It is blended from plots in the crus Cannubi (di Cannubi, that is, traditional core Cannubi, not the more recent extension), Rue, Rocche and San Lorenzo (all in Barolo) and Rocche dell’Annunziata (in La Morra). At the time of writing, San Lorenzo is not being used as it has recently been replanted and the vines remain very young; the shortfall is being made up with fruit from rented vines in Monrobiolo di Bussia.

Since the vines are all local to each other, they ripen at the same time, enabling Maria-Teresa to co-ferment; she insists co-fermenting will give you more integrated and therefore more elegant wines. Fermentation takes place in a mix of glass-lined cement tanks and tini (conical wooden vats) without artificial yeast or temperature control. She will pump over twice a day but employs no punch-down. The cap is usually kept submerged. But she is a pragmatist as much as a purist, and in a few vintages has chosen not to submerge the cap (and pump over more) as a response to specific conditions. Aging is in traditional botti.

The wheel of fashion has turned and traditionalist Barolos are very much in the ascendancy. Maria-Teresa Mascarello’s elegant, fine, Barolos are among the very best. (NT 14/08/23)