This weekend an intro and tasting notes were published from the recent Vinous Bartolo Mascarello tasting that took place in London on 26 April. Those two posts can be found here.
Intro
Tasting Notes
I remember seeing this event when it was announced and I also recall it being mentioned by my mate Cos who is a huge Bartolo Mascarello Barolo fan. Cos even briefly considered flying from Perth to London to attend. As you can see from the links above a few people made their way across the pond to this event.
I guess I can start by saying the devil is in the details. When I saw this event advertised I assumed it would actually be an Historical Retrospective of Bartolo Mascarello from 1958-2010. Instead it seems to have been an Historical Retrospective of Bartolo Mascarello from 1986-2010 with the 1958 being poured at the end. Yes, I understand that the 1958 was in a 1.9 liter bottiglione, but still, labeling the event as a 1958-2010 historical retrospective when there isn’t a single wine from 1959-1985 seems a little disingenuous to me. Obviously I’m not in a position to complain too much as I wasn’t there and the advertisement for the event did clearly indicate the vintages being poured.
What I can say with conviction is that if I was served a 1996 Barolo with heavy sedimentation in glass at a $1,350 USD event I’d be absolutely ropeable.
1996 - Spice and rose petals. Undrinkable due to heavy sedimentation. No additional wine available to replace the junk in the glass. Antonio indicated that, in his view, this was one of the great vintages of the '90s and will be great for another 20 years. My loss.
I’m no Barolo expert, heck I’m no wine expert. But I’m knowledgeable enough about aged Nebbiolo to know definitively that these wines need to be stood up for days at a minimum and ideally at least a couple weeks before being opened due to the incredibly fine sediment they contain. Antonio Galloni knows more about Barolo than I most likely ever will so I’m unsure why or how this was even allowed to occur. The first picture in the first link clearly shows Antonio double decanting before serving as can be expected with aged wines that throw sediment which makes me even more perplexed. And the fact that the blog author characterises this as “My loss” I find incredibly sad. It’s not your fault mate, that “junk” should have never made it into your glass in the first place.
TLDR; I wish Bill Klapp was here.