Bartolo Mascarello

The Bartolo Mascarello wine bottles are without a doubt the most sought after in the world. Not only because of the quality of this excellent wine, but because during his last years, Bartolo Mascarello painted his labels by hand. Some of the labels of the 1999 harvest were painted with the legendary words “No Barrique, No Berlusconi”, which immediately established Bartolo’s political opinions and his philosophy about wine.

Bartolo, who died in 2005, experienced different stages of his life. His father Giulio, son of the manager of the social wine cellar, started his own business in 1919 which allowed him to bottle part of his own production. The turning point came in 1930, when Giulio bought the well-known cru vineyards Cannubi, San Lorenzo and Rué. After the Second World War, Bartolo started working in the wine cellar and helped his father to develop an intensely structured and elegant Barolo. Whereas previously the production of all the vineyards was merged together into one result, it all changed in the 80s-90s with the production of single-cru wines.

From the 90s a whole new army of winemakers came to Barolo who actually made softer wines with less tannins. Bartolo didn’t want to have anything to do with these new winemaking techniques and he remained a stubborn defender of the Barolo tradition as it was created by him and his ancestors.

Currently, Bartolo’s daughter Maria Teresa is in charge and she shares her father’s beliefs, with five essential rules: 1) low yields in the vineyard; 2) the use of grapes only from private land; 3) no use of chemicals; 4) long maceration; 5) the use of large Slavonian oak barrels. The result: an elegant wine!

Check out stock at Vip Piedmont Wine List

Price for the most recent Barolo: 318 €