Somehow I ended up purchasing quite a bit of 2007 Barolo by my standards. Normally I tuck into new arrivals with gay abandon, but the 07 Barolos somehow escaped my onslaught.
After a couple of years settling down, it was time to rip the top off one. This is a lovely prefumed earthy offering with soy notes, trimmed with balsamic and flowers. It glides over the tonsils and then a small wall of spherical tannins gives the wine gravitas, palate presence and length. It’s a pretty vinous elixir that cuts through a slightly fatty lamb shoulder with consummate ease.
Very nice even in its youth.
I have never got hold of the modern v traditional debate, but if Scavino are considered modern, then I would say that this is more traditional in style…in my parlance that means light on oak, extraction and a supple palate.
There are some smaller barrels and mid sized barrels in Massolino’s cellar, and at least for me, the wood I feel is noticeable in their Baroli on release, and distracts my admittedly traditionally leaning palate. I can;t exactly remember , but I feel that the different crus saw different levels of small wood vs Botte, and I can’t remember which was which off hand. That said, they are not Scavino level wooded, but not Bartolo either.
The wood use at Massolino has changed significantly over the years and today they are back to using large format wood and have given up on barrique and new wood except to replace old wood when truly necessary. I think their current release are as good a set of wines as they’ve ever produced and they show little to no new oak. They may not be like Bartolo but they are nowhere near Scavino.
Massolino is one producer who freely admits some of the modernist change implemented over the years failed to produce a better Barolo, but they needed 20 years in bottle to be completely convinced. They are once again a traditional house.
I have had multiple bottles of the 1996 Massolino Barolo Parafada that were shrill and dry. Various tasting notes on Cellatracker confirm that other people had similar experiences. One note refers to Massolino having “abandoned this vinification method”, which is in-line with what Greg is saying above. Good to know that recent vintages are better.
It’s important to consider that the amount of wine produced by a vineyard parcel rarely fits perfectly into any large cask. There is extra wine and by necessity some wine need to be kept out of cask for topping up since there is constant evaporation. This means that there should always be some smaller storage (ie usually barriques but possibly small steel vessels).
If you see a cellar with nothing but large casks, it is very likely that the smaller vessels are stored elsewhere.
True. Keep in mind that if the barriques are very old and used several times, and they are only used as Kevin describes, they will not impart any oak flavors to the wine unless the winemaker wants it. As Kevin describes, all winemakers have this problem, so the presence of a few barriques in a winemakers cellar does not equal new oak flavors in the final product.
…meaning the '04 Rionda is an example of his modernist leaning that he has now abandoned? That and maybe a bottle or two of the '96 Rionda are probably the only Massolino that I have in my cellar, and I have yet to taste them.