Bigolla Massa Monleale 2005: an immortal red wine
What a bomb, this Bigolla Massa Monleale 2005!
A powerful and round Barbera, but always played on the edge of a thundering acidity.
It doesn’t like half-truths and half-tones. It invades your palate and takes over with a roundness that at first seems like pandering and marmalade, but then it calms down, opens up, and makes its way with strokes of freshness and tannins that give the sip credibility.
17 years of rest are a long time from the harvest, but for Walter Massa’s wines, they are nothing, just a flutter of wings, given that it is still perfectly intact, precise, sinuous, and granitic, despite an amazing pleasantness.
It’s not a juicy pale wine; it’s not a creek and picnic Barbera; it’s a great aging nectar. It is still so dense that you can almost bite it and dwarfs the yoghurt wine like Kurni, which in some ways is very reminiscent, especially in terms of aromatic volume.
The price is ridiculous: you can find it for less than 50 euros, even 45. We had had it in the cellar for quite a while, so it was perfectly preserved. But an attempt can be made: if it has been stored properly, the cork is worth the candle, and you can drink a great Piedmontese red wine.
How it is produced
The vineyards are located on the Monleale hills at 300 meters above sea level. The management of the vineyard is the most sustainable and cleanest there can be, even if, as you well know, Walter Massa repudiates any ideology and categorization; therefore, you will not find certifications or DOCs on his labels. Pressing, aging in barriques, and then the wine is bottled without filtration or clarification.
Organoleptic characteristics
The color is purple with a brick edge, but still dark and dense. The nose is austere, and tar and dried meat act as a ram for what is an ethereal fruit, crushed, cooked, and put in alcohol. But don’t expect a soggy pap, a persuasive speech, and a little leafy caress. No, the nose is direct, crackling, and sharp, unaffected by heaviness, and not mushy or plump.
You can then find all the smoked cedar in the world, candied cherries fermented on pink Himalayan salt, and all the perfumes that make fetishists go into raptures with their evolved scents. Even if it must be admitted that such a wealth of balsamic and spicy aromas and suggestions is really rare,
And the precision in the mouth is even more impressive.
The fruit also explodes on the palate, but acidity and tannins keep this softness at bay, which is not tiredness or slowness but generosity. It spreads, seduces, and tickles you with this softness and then flickers again.
The ripe flavors last for a long time and are joined to the earthy tastes of rhubarb and cinchona.
Everything flows wonderfully, the alcohol content and the heat do not oppress the tongue, and indeed, the drinkability is still excellent, thanks to a unique dynamism.
Of course it is a dense and full-bodied wine, even if it never ends in heaviness as an end in itself or even in the plump satisfaction that some Barberas have after spending centuries in barriques.
This always has that sunny, happy flicker that makes Barberas enjoyable every day, and those who can say they have such a huge extract are immortal.
Price
45-50 euros. A ridiculous price, considering that it is a practically immortal wine with a more unique than rare depth. Better 10 times than more ambitious and far more expensive wines.
Pairings
Chicken curry, spare ribs with barbecue sauce, pulled pork, burgers, roast beef.
