Experience the Best of Piedmont: Taste the 2017 Dolcetto d’Alba Bartolo Mascarello
The Dolcetto d’Alba Bartolo Mascarello 2017 is the winery’s symbol and a typical Langhe wine that shows that Dolcetto, not Barolo, pays the bills.
It has all the qualities of a purebred Piedmontese red wine: elegance, a rough, rustic quality that quickly gives way to soft, ripe fruit, a strong stroke, a straight back, and a lot of pulp. The tannins are there, and they do nothing but give substance and drive without going to extremes.
It is not a colossal wine or one that has to age for years in the cellar, but neither is it the haggard, pale, unripe, and skinny Dolcetto that is found all too often in circulation.
As if the cellars were afraid to add another tough and decisive wine because they didn’t want to ruin their range of products… And it is madness, because a Dolcetto made to perfection does not compete with a Barolo but completes its personality.
It is an incredible weapon, a ductile and simple wine, but never taken for granted, except that it is perhaps not very profitable to make it with low yields and using large oaks for slow refinements that keep the cellar busy.
The fact is that this Dolcetto d’Alba Bartolo Mascarello is a little gem and hasn’t been in the cellar for ten years. But only for 3 years, since you can now find the 2020 vintage in circulation.
How it is produced
The grapes come from two company crus, Monrobiolo and Ruè. Spontaneous fermentation and maceration in concrete, and then aging in large Slavonian oak barrels for 10 months As you well know, barriques are not welcome in the cellar, and it is this desire to work slowly that makes this wine unique.
And don’t think that it costs 40 euros, because it reaches a maximum of 22 euros. Instead of buying five sweets for five euros, buy one made properly and enjoy a real wine.
Organoleptic characteristics
Purple colour. The nose played on ripe and austere fruit, a subtle herbaceous thread that unites, and a final floral return that fades into licorice. It’s simple and direct, but it doesn’t lack finesse and restraint. The perceived rustic tone is very vinous and arrembante, but never rude or ungrammatical.
On the palate, it is warm, broad, and enveloping, with strong tannins and good freshness. It has no exaggerated depth but moves with elegance and a step that doesn’t linger. Perfect extraction. well-managed green area. A juicy finish of orange and pepper
Price
22–24 euros: you couldn’t spend your money better.
Pairings
Black truffle risotto, passatelli with Parmigiano fondue and truffle, bucatini all’amatriciana, roast beef, hamburger.