The Mascarello family and the Monprivato cru have been linked for centuries, since before the discovery of America, as family legend tells it. The current configuration of the family purchased it from Mauro Mascarello's grandfather in 1904. It seems to me that the DNA of the people who farm it and the site itself are inexorably intertwined. With so much experience at their backs, it's no wonder that this wine shines despite a vintage that delivered quite a few curveballs with lower than average temperatures and above average rainfall during the most delicate phases in the vineyard. The 2014 Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio is a wine of infinite grace and harmony. The style is delicate, almost fragile, and streamlined for sure. But the bouquet delivers pretty notes of cherry, cassis, cinnamon, licorice, mint, violets, crushed stone and so much more. The family tells me that the special combination of mint and violet that appears so readily on this wine is due to the Michet clone of Nebbiolo featured here. The finish is long and graceful, and you'll notice that pretty freshness too. This is a beauty, and all told, a very special wine.

This wine has been resting quietly in bottle since 2018 while getting ready for its release, which should be within the next month or two. The 2013 Barolo Monprivato Riserva Cà d'Morissio benefits from a long and slow growing season, just what the late-ripening Nebbiolo grape likes best. This wine delivers rich volume and a fine texture, with a pretty point of fresh acidity that is neatly buried behind bright fruit tones of cassis, dried cherry and rose hip. Earthy tones are woven within, and the wine shows slightly spicy highlights of licorice and tar that point to some of the subtle bottle evolution already underway. Generally speaking, the fruit in 2013 doesn't have the same power that we saw in the 2016 Barolo Monprivato (also reviewed here), but it does offer similar depth and elegant complexity. This is a collectors' bottle for sure.