For our tasting last Saturday, I brought this wine. The group agreed on

"medium ruby color with orange rim. Nose of coffee and rum pot. Extremely
acidic - lemon, grapefruit. Mouth drying tannin, but virtually no fruit."

Have a look at R.Parker's review from April 94, WA#92: 94-97 points:
" massive, with huge extraction of fruit; fabulously fragrant nose of cedar,
jammy black-cherries, herbs, and roses; extremely concentrated,
well-integrated monumental Barolo. The super level of ripeness makes this
wine very accessible, even seductive when young."

My opinion of this wine didn't change proven by a TN of the firat bottle
from november 96:
"light ruby color; austere alcoholic nose with kirsch liqueur. The wine is
dominated by the adstingent tannin which makes it virtually undrinkable, the
fruit doesn't get through. No idea what RP is talking about: massive,
monumental, seductive, ... ridiculous!

It is quite obvious that the wine RP drank and the six bottles I bought are
completely different things. What I want to know: Did they give Parker a
special "tasting nectar" or was I just unlucky with my sixpack I bought on a
cold All-Saints-Day 1994 at the winery in Barolo?

Can anybody shed some light on this issue? Or easier: How did you experience
this wine?

Martin

Martin

This is one of the so called "traditionalist" Barolo makers, IOW you
must not count on drinking these young and get any pleasure. And 1990
being a great year, this needs another decade. Real barolo is a bit
like real chablis, no point in trying it in the first 10 years.

Another traditionalist reality in Barolo is Rinaldi. Personally, I
find Rinaldi and Bartolo Mascarello to be a refreshing change from the
big woody seductive stuff that comes out from the rest of the region.
Even Altare, who is a brilliant winemaker, uses too much wood to my
taste.

Mike

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 13:20:28 +0200, "Martin Schulz"
> wrote:

>For our tasting last Saturday, I brought this wine. The group agreed on
>
>"medium ruby color with orange rim. Nose of coffee and rum pot. Extremely
>acidic - lemon, grapefruit. Mouth drying tannin, but virtually no fruit."
>
>Have a look at R.Parker's review from April 94, WA#92: 94-97 points:
>" massive, with huge extraction of fruit; fabulously fragrant nose of cedar,
>jammy black-cherries, herbs, and roses; extremely concentrated,
>well-integrated monumental Barolo. The super level of ripeness makes this
>wine very accessible, even seductive when young."
>
>My opinion of this wine didn't change proven by a TN of the firat bottle
>from november 96:
>"light ruby color; austere alcoholic nose with kirsch liqueur. The wine is
>dominated by the adstingent tannin which makes it virtually undrinkable, the
>fruit doesn't get through. No idea what RP is talking about: massive,
>monumental, seductive, ... ridiculous!
>
>It is quite obvious that the wine RP drank and the six bottles I bought are
>completely different things. What I want to know: Did they give Parker a
>special "tasting nectar" or was I just unlucky with my sixpack I bought on a
>cold All-Saints-Day 1994 at the winery in Barolo?
>
>Can anybody shed some light on this issue? Or easier: How did you experience
>this wine?
>
>Martin
>


Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France
email link http://www.tommasi.org/mymail

Did they give Parker a
>special "tasting nectar" or was I just unlucky with my sixpack I bought on a
>cold All-Saints-Day 1994 at the winery in Barolo?
>
>Can anybody shed some light on this issue? Or easier: How did you experience
>this wine?

Well, I'd agree with Mike that this would be an awkward time to try a 1990
Barolo from a traditional maker. I LOVED the '90 B. Mascarello about 2 years
ago, but the donor had decanted the day before. Not sure that my opinion would
have paralled RP's "super level of ripeness", but there was plenty of red fruit
to balance the tannins and acid.

I'd actually put Bartolo (famous for his socialist fervency and devotion to
traditional Barolo- "No Barriques, no Berlusconi!" ) in the Top 10 Winemakers
Least Likely to Do a "Parker Barrel" category.

Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

"Mike Tommasi" > wrote in message
...
> Martin
>
> This is one of the so called "traditionalist" Barolo makers, IOW you
> must not count on drinking these young and get any pleasure. And 1990
> being a great year, this needs another decade. Real barolo is a bit
> like real chablis, no point in trying it in the first 10 years.
>
I selected Bartolo because he is a traditionalist. I dislike stylish and
generic wines. The less barrique the better. But so little fruit ... I admit
that tasting it in 1996 was not a good idea, I was just curious. But in 2004
still nothing exciting? BTW, Parker tasted it 1994 and had a fruit bomb.
Maybe it was a barrel sample and the wine closed down for decades after
bottling. Hopefully it is similar to 1986 Bordeaux: Both La Lagune and
Talbot were no fun during the 90ies, but after 2000 they are brilliant (just
my experience).

> Another traditionalist reality in Barolo is Rinaldi. Personally, I
> find Rinaldi and Bartolo Mascarello to be a refreshing change from the
> big woody seductive stuff that comes out from the rest of the region.

Mike, "refreshing" is a good point. Just think of the lemon and grapefruit
flavors in my TNs :-)
But seriously, the pro of our tasting group, a winemaker by himself, was
quite happy with the wine. When we cursed the wine and called it
undrinkable, he was sniffing and smiled: "Hey folks, we should be glad that
we have something different, something characteristic". That correlates with
your "refreshing change". It was a blind tasting and he recognized the
Barolo immediately. After sniffing I thought it was a Brunello, but when
tasting I knew it was my wine - a perfect mouth drier.

Anyway, thanks for your comments, Mike.

Martin

"Dale Williams" > wrote in message
...
>
> Well, I'd agree with Mike that this would be an awkward time to try a 1990
> Barolo from a traditional maker. I LOVED the '90 B. Mascarello about 2
years
> ago, but the donor had decanted the day before. Not sure that my opinion
would
> have paralled RP's "super level of ripeness", but there was plenty of red
fruit
> to balance the tannins and acid.
>
Alright Dale. I will decant my next=last bottle well before. But I have only
faint hope.

> I'd actually put Bartolo (famous for his socialist fervency and devotion
to
> traditional Barolo- "No Barriques, no Berlusconi!" ) in the Top 10
Winemakers
> Least Likely to Do a "Parker Barrel" category.
>
Well, you need not be a fervent socialist to dislike Berlusconi, but this
stubborn old man has his merits. He reportedly opposed against installing a
phone at his home. But they did anyway, so he always complained about the
ringing. I thought he passed away long ago, but obviously he is alive and
kicking. Well not paricularly kicking - in his wheelchair. I never got to
know him personally. It was his daughter Maria Teresa who sold us the wine
ten years ago. To be honest, the wine was as lean and austere when tasting
it at the winery as it is today. So we can exclude the possibility that she
gave me crap. BTW, the price was 35.000 Lire which is something like $20 or
even less when applying the exchange rates of 1994. Now you must struggle to
get it for less than $100.

Thanks for your nice comments, Dale.
Martin