TN: 1996 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo

Decanted in my office around 3pm and enjoyed from 8 to 11pm. Initial taste was charmless, lean and carried what I thought was a troublesome burnt note, but thankfully that blew off. Hours later, the nose is pretty complex, the palate deep, with focused cherry fruit, a smokey balsamic note, slightly herbal, deep and lean but showing a concentration of cherry fruit (very '96) that is still rather austere but should be positively stunning in around ten more years. The palate is grippy with tannin, but it’s starting, ever so slightly, to show some resolution around its sides, although the center core is deep, focused cherry fruit. A very good showing, with sufficient air, but still this needs many more years. At Estela, NYC, just after it was awarded its Michelin star, which, btw, is very well-deserved.

Is their corkage still $65+? Wine list there seems to have hurdled towards natty.

Hi, Hart. Nice meeting you last month at Riverpark for the Suchots tasting.
I was at Estela with a wine supplier, so we had an industry discount on corkage.