Barolo, Bartolo Mascarello 2001

I had heard undercurrents that the quality of the Mascarello wines had slipped just a bit in the last few years of Bartolo’s career, once he had been confined to a wheelchair and was not out working in the vineyards each and every day. However, based on the stunning quality of the younger vintages in this vertical tasting, I have to say that this was emphatically not the case. The 2001 is a classic and timeless beauty in the making, which offers up a powerful and pure bouquet of black cherries, licorice, road tar, fresh herbs and a faint whiff of cedary spice (no doubt from some of those new botti that were added to the cellar around this time). On the palate the wine is full-bodied, pure and classically structured, with beautiful focus, a rock solid core of fruit, ripe, but firm tannins, and great tangy acids giving the wine a lightness of step on the very long, soil-driven finish. This is a great young Bartolo in the making, and clearly will be one of the great vinous legacies of his illustrious career. Drink between 2020-2060