2010 Elio Grasso Barolo Ginestra Vigna Casa Mate

The 2010 Barolo Ginestra Casa Mate is a more muscular and layered expression with a softer quality of fruit and a good amount of power and muscle at the back. Its aromatic delivery is constant and steady with an ever-changing array of red fruit, dark spice, cola and anisette. The tannins are particularly well defined and silky. Drink: 2018-2038. (Monica Larner)

Leather, tar and spice notes trump the dried cherry and berry flavors in this vivid Barolo. There's sweetness midpalate, with dusty, mouthcoating tannins lining the finish. Balanced, but needs time. BS

Deep, fresh red. Knockout mineral-driven aromas of raspberry, smoke and licorice, with a sexy treble note of peach. Large-scaled and voluminous but with a magically weightless quality owing to its intense inner-mouth aromatic lift. Wonderfully suave, deep and young, finishing with utterly noble tannins and superb length. Really builds and perfumes the mouth. Grasso describes this as "a once-a-decade wine." This is remarkably easy to taste today owing to its richness and balance, but it would be a shame not to give it at least five or six years in the cellar.

– vinous.com, November 2013

This shows lots of peach, tangerine and blackberry character. Full body, round and silky with berry and sliced-citrus character. Needs at least three years to soften: better in 2017.

– jamessuckling.com, April 2014

Dark red cherries, plums, smoke, tar, menthol and licorice all take shape in the 2010 Barolo Ginestra Vigna Casa Matè. Today the 2010 is painfully young and less expressive than the Gavarini, but equally promising. A generous, resonant wine, the 2010 blossoms in all directions with seemingly endless layers of dark, balsamic-inflected fruit. Today, the Casa Matè is closed and shut down, but it has all the qualities to develop into a spectacular Barolo. The future is bright, especially for readers who can be patient.

– vinous.com, January 2014