The 2019 Barolo is a potent, layered wine, within the super-classic style that is the house signature. Dark cherry, plum, spice, leather, licorice and menthol add to an impression of brooding intensity. There's real weight and substance here that needs time to emerge. Dried herbs, sage, mint, tobacco and cedar linger on the vibrant, tense finish.

Maria Teresa Mascarello compared the 2019 of her Barolo (which will be released in September 2023) with the famed 1999 vintage. Fermented and aged in oak for 36 months, this blend of four MGAs – Cannubi, Rocche dell'Annunziata, Monrobiolo di Bussia and Ruè – will, from 2020, also incorporate grapes from San Lorenzo. Full of earthy tones, tar, smoky woodland and the elegance of leafy lightness, it shines for its depth and complexity, with the first hints of bergamot and potpourri. The palate is stylish, with firm, youthful, grainy yet sweet tannins allied to refreshing acidity of amazing delicacy; forward and zesty. An incredible structure wrapped up in a silk scarf.

Coming to market this fall, the Bartolo Mascarello 2019 Barolo represents a classic vintage in between two challenging growing seasons. Both 2018 and 2020 were hotter than 2019, resulting in higher alcohol levels. With fruit harvested on October 8th and 9th, this expression from 2019 shows extra freshness and a more streamlined style compared to the texturally generous 2020 or the softer and more open-knit 2018. Extraction and structure came easily in 2019, and delicate pump-overs sufficed. Maria Teresa Mascarello opted against submerged cap fermentations in 2022, 2019, 2017 and 2013. It was performed in 2016, 2014 and 2010, however. The fruit represents a blend of Monrobiolo in Bussia (a site with a lease that ends in 2025), Rue and Cannubi in Barolo and Rocche dell’Annunziata in La Morra. San Lorenzo will return to the blend in 2020. This bottle promises a decisive, vertical delivery of fruit (lots of "skeleton and bones") with a pretty moment of crunch, elegant acidic freshness and tannic structure. If you are nostalgic for a tight, acidity-driven Barolo that is good for long cellar aging, the 2019 is for you.

The 2019 Barolo saw a gentle fermentation without implementing a submerged cap and is a more forward and linear wine, with rhubarb, pomegranate, and orange peel. It retains a medium body with a more direct nature, with refined tannins and racy acidity that is citrus-driven with notes of ripe apricot and red raspberry. This is an outstanding wine to hold a few years and drink over the coming decades.

Compact and slow to emerge from the glass and with a minerally lift. Very youthful and with only hints of raspberry and cherry. Embryonic on the palate. Compact, fine yet persistent, almost aromatic tannins while fine, perfumed raspberry emerges along with tannic energy on the finish. Long, chalky mineral notes on the finish. (WS)