The Bartolo Mascarello estate remains true to its tradition and history. Maria Theresa Mascarello assures me that she will absolutely continue to make her wines in the style of her father and grandfather: traditional in every sense.

"The idea of a perfect wine doesn’t exist,” says Mascarello. “I am trying to make an honest wine, one that reflects all of the qualities of our territory, both its strengths as well as its flaws. There are only a few sites that can really give expressive wines.”

She continues, “Our ancestors used to look at the hills in the winter, and where the snow melted first, they planted Nebbiolo. Today, Nebbiolo is planted everywhere. For example, the vineyard where we have our Dolcetto has a good exposure, but it was never considered a first-rate exposure, so it was always planted with Dolcetto....today it is all Nebbiolo, only we have kept Dolcetto in that vineyard."

The estate produces one Barolo, which is made from a blend of some of the best plots in the region. The vineyards are typically harvested in the following order: San Lorenzo, Cannubi, Torriglione and Rue, and the grapes are vinified together. The wines are fermented in glass-lined concrete for 15-20 days, without the aid of temperature control or selected yeasts. Then they age in medium and large casks for three years before being released in the fall of the fourth year after the vintage.

A Visit to the Source

For all lovers of Barolo, of whatever level and orientation, it is an absolute "must" to ring the doorbell at number 15 Via Roma and be welcomed into the office of this vignaiolo, as he loves to call himself. Bartolo Mascarello makes ironic comments on all of the wine scene happenings of the Langhe while he is also absorbed in drawing and coloring a sketch for one of his inventive Barolo labels and issues the bon mots for which he is notorious. Everybody comes by, from noted politicians, to writers, journalists, and artists, but especially legions of wine lovers who consider Bartolo (Barolo) Mascarello a symbol, the tenacious defender --"the last of the Mohicans" in his words—and living testimony to a history and a particular character of wine that survives from very long ago.

In fact, from the 19th-century roots of this wine, as well as from the experiences of his father Giulio, who returned in 1918 from the hardships of the First World War and was so struck by the situation in which the small Cantina Sociale di Barolo found itself, that he decided to strike out on his own and be an independent wine producer.

Growing step by step, he began producing wine in standard bottles in addition to the traditional trade in demijohns to private customers. He purchased small parcels of vines in some of the best sites in Barolo, in Cannubi, at San Lorenzo and Rué, and much later, in Rocche in La Morra, with the result that his operation gained a solid reputation and wide prestige. It grew still more after the Second World War and then in the 1960s, when his son Bartolo entered the business to help Giulio, who had been named some years before as Barolo’s first post-war mayor.

Apart from considerably increasing the production in bottles, Bartolo changed nothing of his father’s modus operandi; he continued for many years to produce an incredible and extremely distinctive Freisa, which was "nebbioloed" by passing it briefly over fresh nebbiolo pomace. He refused to be tempted by the growing practice of vinifying and bottling single vineyards, following the French custom, a practice that led to fragmenting production. He remained stubbornly faithful to the characteristic Barolo tradition of assembling blends of the grapes from different vineyards to ensure a wine of more balanced proportion and better harmony.

That practice of creating a single cuvée from the blending of four estate vineyards, equaling three hectares of nebbiolo for Barolo out of a total five hectares of grapes (some of which go as well to Barbera d’Alba, Dolcetto d’Alba, and Freisa) has remained unchanged. For the past few years, sickness has prevented him from walking his beloved vineyards and carrying out the winemaker’s responsibilities, so his wife and daughter, Maria Teresa, now help.

Maria Teresa’s entrance into the winery began with faithfully applying the family’s traditional philosophy, which specifies lengthy macerations and patient smoothing out in large oak botti, and certainly not in the barriques of which her father is a declared enemy. She goes so far as to post his diatribes right on various bottle labels, but thanks to her fine, feminine sensitivity, she has already made a personal contribution by improving the aromatics and the crisp fruit of the wines, and has gradually brought in new aging casks. For the Mascarello family maintains that tradition should never be mummified. It should instead be constantly open to the new, yet without ever burning the bridges to the past that brought it into the present.