Margherita Otto Barolo

Hey hey!

I discovered a few bottles of the 2016 buried in the back off my wine fridge. I do recall the salesperson pitching it to me as “declassified” Bartolo Mascarello. I took a flyer on 3 bottles and forgot about them. I never see much love for Margherita Otto on WB.

I’m planning to open one this weekend. I do understand the story of Alan Manley and his relationship to Maria Teresa Mascarello but saying that it’s “declassified” leads me to believe that Maria Teresa had some hand in the production or use of her fruit.

You can’t trust those sales reps! Lol!

That story is a bit of a reach. So Manley worked at Mascarello, with an eye towards doing his own thing, which is what you bought. It’s not declassified Bartolo Mascarello. Galloni’s notes say- Manley’s Margherita Otto Barolo is a blend of fruit from Monforte, Castiglione Falletto and Serralunga.

So that doesn’t jive.

I had the 2015 (which I believe is the first vintage), and it was a good wine that was pretty and well made. Galloni said that brighter things are coming, so you should be happy you own it.

Yeah, I wasn’t sure if that was just the angle the salesperson was using to justify the price. $80ish I believe. I’m pretty pumped to try it!

Although I’m sure he learned a lot from being around MTM. But I do agree, the story is still a reach.

I thought this was some new kind of Haiku-type thing where you just named your favorite pizza, your favorite Berserker, and your favorite wine region.

That’s a slam dunk right there, folks!! Lol!

Honestly, this is classic game of telephone. People take something like “he worked at Bartolo Mascarello” and go too far with it. He could have heard it from an overzealous sales rep who sold him the wine.

Just last week a friend of mine asked me if I had ever heard of a producer, I said no. He said the guy pitching it to him said it was “The Rayas of the Luberon”. A quick search of Cellar Tracker and finding maybe 5 bottles quickly dispelled that sales pitch.

There are countless stories about stuff like this in the wine world.

Here’s is an importer explanation of this producer. It mentions the Mascarello connection.

I had read that shortly after being sold these bottles. Here’s what got me thinking…

“Alan was fortunate to be able to vinify his first vintages in a friend’s cellar.”

It pays to have friends in Barolo.

Now if we could only find out why Slavonian oak isn’t sturdy enough for him.

Alan’s methods, i.e. all the different vineyards’ grapes fermented together, I believe are similar to Bartolo Mascarello. Obviously, the vineyard sites are quite different.

I think the early wines from Margherita Otto are quite promising, but due to logistical issues or changing vineyard sites, the “style” of the wine is hard to read from the early vintages. For example, the '16 spent more time I think in concrete, and it is a very dense, somewhat reductive wine, that seemed to have a lot of potential but needed a lot of air in my tasting to show much. The '19 Barolo from barrel and the '19 and '20 Langhe Nebbiolo suggest to me that quality and consistency are going to go up a lot from the level of the 2015-2017. I also liked the '18 a lot from barrel, but have yet to taste it from bottle.