1967 Giuseppe Mascarello e Figlio Barolo

The 1967 Barolo is simply off the charts. There is an extraordinary level of fruit to be found in the glass, along with subtle notes of plums, prunes and sweet balsamic spices that develop over time. Still rich and expansive, this generous Barolo is intensely beautiful. The 1967 Barolo remains one of the house's very finest all-time wines. It also captures an early transitionary period, as it was the first Barolo Mauro Mascarello made, although his father was still intricately involved. At the time, the family still made their Barolo from a combination of vineyards, a traditional approach which sought to combine the strengths of various sites. Sadly, this custom has long been abandoned by all but a tiny handful of producers, yet every time I taste Mascarello's 1967 Barolo and other first-class wines from this generation I often wonder what such a Barolo might taste like today with a contemporary approach to viticulture and winemaking. The 1967 Barolo is a blend of 45% Monprivato, 25% Villero and 30% Bussia Soprana, and the clonal blend is roughly 20% Michet, 50% Lampia and 30% Rosé. If I could only drink one Mascarello wine, it might very well be the 1967 Barolo. At 42 years of age, it is still breathtaking juice!

Had the 1967 Barolo also not been an ex-cellar bottle I might have had doubts about its provenance. This was a big, richly colored Barolo loaded with dense fruit and a deep, powerful personality. It wasn’t as elegant as the other wines in this flight (both Riservas), but it was nevertheless impressive.

Nothing we had tasted so far could have prepared us for the wine that would follow. I have only had Mascarello's 1967 Barolo once before but this bottle was simply off the charts. It opens with a beguiling, complex nose with prominent aromas of chocolate and leather, then flows onto the palate with waves of sweet dark fruit that open with notable concentration and extraordinary finesse. For many in the group, myself included, the 1967 Barolo was the Wine of the Night. It is the kind of wine one so often hopes to drink yet so rarely gets to drink. It was also without question the wine that stimulated the most conversation. The practice of blending fruit from various communes has all but disappeared today, but tasting this wine made me think about how sage that approach may have been and I was not alone in that thought. Although perhaps not as singularly expressive as the best Monprivatos, the 1967 Barolo offered a level of completeness, harmony and sheer drinking pleasure that none of the other wines had. "It used to be common practice to make Barolos from fruit that was sourced from different communes. One vineyard might give you the perfume, while another would provide the concentration of fruit. Grapes from a third site could be used for structure. By blending the fruit from these different sources you could make a wine that had all of the qualities needed to make a great, well-balanced wine," says Mascarello. "The reality is that if you're going to make a single-vineyard Barolo you need a plot that can give you all three elements - perfume, fruit and structure- and there aren't too many sites where that is possible."