Giuseppe Mascarello & Figlio

The Mascarello family farmed vineyards for the Marchesa Giulia Colbert Faletti di Barolo at her Manescotto estate in La Morra before establishing their own business. In 1881, Giuseppe Mascarello purchased his first parcel of vines in Monforte d'Alba, founding the family estate. His son Maurizio (known as Morissio in Piedmontese dialect) moved the business to a farm in the Monprivato area of Castiglione Falletto in 1904, acquiring 3.11 hectares of the cru. In 1919, Maurizio purchased a historic 18th-century building in nearby Monchiero, originally built as an ice house, whose thick brick-lined cellar walls maintain a natural year-round temperature of 12 to 13 degrees Celsius; the winery remains there today.

• 1881: Giuseppe Mascarello founds the estate in Monforte d'Alba after years farming for the Marchesa Falletti di Barolo
• 1904: Son Maurizio purchases farm and 3.11 hectares of Monprivato in Castiglione Falletto, planting the Michét clone of Nebbiolo
• 1919: Winery relocated to Monchiero, occupying an 18th-century former ice house with naturally stable cellar temperatures of 12 to 13 degrees Celsius
• 1923: Maurizio dies; his sons Giuseppe (Gepin) and Natale take over, eventually splitting the property before Mauro reunites it in 1979

Giuseppe Mascarello e Figlio is widely considered one of the benchmark estates for understanding classical Nebbiolo and the traditional Barolo school. Mauro Mascarello's 1970 decision to bottle Monprivato as a single-vineyard wine was a defining moment in Barolo history; prior to that vintage, the family had always blended Monprivato fruit with grapes from other crus. Now that Giovanni Conterno, Bartolo Mascarello, and Beppe Rinaldi are gone, Mauro stands as the last of his generation of great, classically inspired Barolo winemakers. For wine students and professionals, the estate is an essential reference for the traditional Barolo philosophy: long maceration, old large-format oak, and an uncompromising emphasis on terroir over technique.

• Mauro is widely regarded as the last surviving member of his generation of great classical Barolo producers, following the passing of Giovanni Conterno, Bartolo Mascarello, and Beppe Rinaldi
• First single-vineyard Barolo Monprivato bottled from the 1970 vintage, at a time when blended Barolo was the dominant and accepted style
• Monprivato is universally recognized as one of Barolo's greatest crus; Renato Ratti's 1985 classification listed it among Barolo's eleven top historic vineyards
• The estate is a cornerstone reference for the traditionalist side of the Barolo Wars, the philosophical divide between classical and modernist winemaking that defined Piedmont in the 1980s and 1990s

Mauro Mascarello describes his approach as letting the earth express itself through the fruit, aiming to do as little as possible in the cellar. Fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, with maceration lasting approximately 30 days using the cappello sommerso (submerged cap) method. This is a reduction from the 60-day macerations of earlier generations, brought first to 40 days and then to 30 days during the early 1980s after a period of experimentation. Wines are aged roughly three and a half years in old Slavonian oak botti, the same casks purchased by Giuseppe (Gepin) in the late 1950s, before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. No barriques or new oak are used at any stage.

• Maceration approximately 30 days with cappello sommerso; reduced from 60 days in the pre-Mauro era through experimentation between 1968 and 1977
• Aging roughly 3.5 years in old Slavonian oak botti purchased in the late 1950s; no new oak, no barriques
• Bottled unfined and unfiltered, preserving natural structure and aromatics
• Sustainable viticulture: no artificial fertilizers; strict yield control through hard pruning; hand harvesting with careful sorting

The flagship Barolo Monprivato, produced since 1970, is sourced from the 6.13-hectare Monprivato vineyard in Castiglione Falletto, entirely planted to Nebbiolo. In exceptional years the estate releases the rare Barolo Riserva Ca d'Morissio, first produced commercially from the 1993 vintage, sourced from a parcel of Michét-clone Nebbiolo replanted in the mid-1980s and named for Mauro's grandfather Maurizio. The broader lineup includes Barolo from Villero and Bricco in Castiglione Falletto, and Santo Stefano di Perno in Monforte d'Alba, purchased in 1989. The estate also produces vineyard-designated Barbera, Dolcetto, and Freisa wines.

• Barolo Monprivato: flagship wine, first vintage 1970, from the 6.13-hectare Castiglione Falletto cru; bottled only in outstanding and excellent vintages
• Barolo Riserva Ca d'Morissio: first commercial vintage 1993, from Michét-clone parcel replanted mid-1980s within Monprivato; named after grandfather Maurizio (Morissio in Piedmontese dialect)
• Additional Barolo crus: Villero (first bottled 1978) and Bricco in Castiglione Falletto; Santo Stefano di Perno in Monforte d'Alba (vineyard acquired 1989)
• Portfolio rounded out with vineyard-designated Barbera d'Alba, Dolcetto d'Alba, and Freisa, each reflecting the estate's commitment to traditional Piedmontese varieties

Mascarello Barolos, and Monprivato in particular, display a classic Nebbiolo aromatic signature shaped by Castiglione Falletto's calcareous marl soils: rose petal, dried cherry, tar, leather, licorice, and mineral notes. On the palate, expect supple tannins that can seem deceptively approachable in youth but are structured for long aging. Mascarello himself notes that despite the long maceration, Monprivato's tannins are unusually silky. The wines blossom after six to ten years of bottle age and can evolve brilliantly over 25 to 40 years. Young releases show restraint rather than opulence; jammy, ripe, or heavily-oaked notes are entirely absent.

• Aromatics: rose, dried cherry, tar, leather, licorice, mineral; with bottle age, truffles and autumnal forest floor emerge
• Monprivato soil (Helvetian-era calcareous blue-grey marl) contributes elegance, subtle bouquet, and a lingering mineral finish
• Palate: supple but structured tannins, bright acidity; despite 30-day maceration, texture is notably refined rather than extracted
• Aging: wines blossom after 6 to 10 years and evolve brilliantly over 25 to 40 years; never shows excessive oak or overripe fruit

The 1970 Barolo Monprivato stands as a landmark wine in Italian wine history, demonstrating that a single Piedmontese cru could achieve a level of complexity and identity that surpassed blended Barolo. Mauro Mascarello's insistence on traditional methods through the 1980s and 1990s, a period when the estate fell into relative commercial obscurity as modern-style Barolo dominated, proved prescient: appreciation for the Mascarello wines surged in the mid-2000s as the wine world re-embraced classical styles. The estate now transitions to the fifth generation with Mauro's son Giuseppe active in winery operations since 1996 and his daughter Elena also involved, ensuring the continuation of a winemaking philosophy built across more than 140 years.

• 1970 Barolo Monprivato: a landmark in Barolo history and an early validation of single-vineyard cru bottlings in Piedmont
• Mauro's traditionalist stance through the Barolo Wars of the 1980s and 1990s proved its merit as classical Barolo regained global prestige from the mid-2000s onward
• Son Giuseppe has worked alongside Mauro since 1996; daughter Elena also involved; the fifth generation upholds the family's classical winemaking philosophy
• Monprivato is now almost entirely a Mascarello monopole after a series of parcel acquisitions in the 1980s, including the Vatican's 1.43 hectares purchased at auction in 1986