Winemaker Notes
Deep garnet red with bright hues which naturally evolve with age. Intense, very complex, offering a wide range of notes; with remarkable red fruit combined with floral and spicy hints Especially after a few years of aging, this Barolo shows all the elegance and charm that only Nebbiolo grapes can offer. Robust, rich, and austere. It perfectly reflects the great complexity of the soil in Serralunga d’Alba. The perfect Barolo for long aging.
An elegant companion for important rice and pasta dishes, such as risotto cooked in Barolo, and rich and tasty main courses, such as roasted meats. After a few years of aging, this Barolo expresses its considerable potential just as well when sipped as a wine for thought and served with hard and medium-hard cheeses.
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesA late April frost in 2017 was followed by drought conditions from June until harvest, cutting yields at Massolino and, in the case of Parafada, reducing production from the usual 7,000 bottles to less than 5,000. Grab some of those bottles if you can. The 2017 Parafada is one of the wines of the vintage, its red-cherry flavors perfectly ripe, the acidity fresh and taut, the tannins firm and polished. There’s no trace of dried or overripe fruit here, the 55-year- old vines reaching into Parafada’s limestone soils to find water reserves from the abundant snows of the previous winter. Since the 2016 vintage, Franco Massolino has fermented his Barolos in large Garbellotto casks rather than in cement, allowing for longer and slower fermentations at lower temperatures to retain the delicate aromas of bright cherry and fresh florals that are expressed so beautifully in this wine.
Forest floor, grilled herb, iris and camphor aromas appear in the glass. Combining structure and finesse, the firm palate delivers ripe Marasca cherry, raspberry compote, baking spice and licorice alongside tightly knit, fine-grained tannins. Best after 2025.
Expressive, this Barolo evokes macerated plum, cherry, rose hip and chalky mineral flavors. Fresh and firm, with a long, energetic finish.
The history of the Massolinos and their wine became entwined with the history of Serralunga d’Alba in 1896, when Giovanni Massolino founded the estate. An enterprising, tenacious, and creative man, Giovanni was the very first person to bring electricity to the village. Giovanni’s son, Giuseppe, built Massolino’s first wine cellar, extended the estate into the best soils, and in 1934 founded the Consortium for the Defence of Barolo and Barbaresco. Three of Giovanni’s children later followed in his footsteps, expanding the estate with the purchase of cru vineyards which are authentic jewels: Margheria, Parafada, and Vigna Rionda. In the 1990s, Franco and Roberto, both oenologists, joined the family estate. Their work condenses the experience of an entire family and the ambition of a new generation, determined to make an important contribution to the innovation of oenological and agronomical techniques and to the image of the estate in Italy and abroad. Massolino makes wine with passion in its land of origin, preserving the typical characteristics of indigenous grape varieties. Central to the winery’s philosophy is the conviction that there is a deep, tangible link between the vines, hills, and winegrowers, whose connection and affinity to the land grows more profound with each passing year.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo wine region includes five core townships: La Morra, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and the Barolo village itself, as well as a few outlying villages. The landscape of Barolo, characterized by prominent and castle-topped hills, is full of history and romance centered on the Nebbiolo grape. Its wines, with the signature “tar and roses” aromas, have a deceptively light garnet color but full presence on the palate and plenty of tannins and acidity. In a well-made Barolo wine, one can expect to find complexity and good evolution with notes of, for example, strawberry, cherry, plum, leather, truffle, anise, fresh and dried herbs, tobacco and violets.
There are two predominant soil types here, which distinguish Barolo from the lesser surrounding areas. Compact and fertile Tortonian sandy marls define the vineyards farthest west and at higher elevations. Typically the Barolo wines coming from this side, from La Morra and Barolo, can be approachable relatively early on in their evolution and represent the “feminine” side of Barolo, often closer in style to Barbaresco with elegant perfume and fresh fruit.
On the eastern side of the Barolo wine region, Helvetian soils of compressed sandstone and chalks are less fertile, producing wines with intense body, power and structured tannins. This more “masculine” style comes from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba. The township of Castiglione Falletto covers a spine with both soil types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.