Per Kamperin

2004 Giuseppe E Figlio Mascarello Barolo Monprivato. Classic and typical with cherries, spice, soil, tar and leather. Concentrated with complex nuances. Great Barolo. Many years to go… Monprivato is one of the most distinctive Barolos around.  It boasts a level of elegance, clarity of expression and beautifully nuanced complexity that's heartbreaking. There's a unique and very compelling mingling of fruit, flower and earth with an incredible finesse.  The life of Monprivato is legendary.  It can age for decades. Over time, it shows its breeding to an even greater extent and gets even more beautifully aromatic and transparent. With time, a beguiling depth and perfume emerges.  2004 is a very strong vintage for Piedmont, but even in this context the Monprivato is brilliant.  Few wines reached this level of refinement and delineation. Monprivato - Vintage 2004

2007 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Brunate - Le Coste, a wine worth devoting yourself to… ”Powerful, complex and multi-faceted - red fruit, leather, cherries, blackberries, herbs, tar, orange peel, a hint of medicinal tones and a floral touch and perhaps also some meaty and animal features.. First labelled and sold as a single-vineyard wine in   1934, Brunate is one of the Grand Crus of the Langhe region, even if the classification has not yet been made. Why? Because of its ability to deliver high quality fruit year-in, year-out. It is at the base of the La Morra slope, in a plum south amphiteatro which generates plenty of steamy heat by day and because of its position low down, it chills down quickly by night, preserving the perfumes and extending the hang-time.

 ”Protected from cold, eastern winds by the high ridge of Serralunga, Vigna Rionda gets full southern exposure. This combination allows grapes to reach ideal ripening before harvest almost every year. High vineyard altitudes of 985 feet provide marked day-night temperature changes that prolong the growing season and create complex aromas in the finished wines.”   Vigna Rionda - Vintage 2004

  The vineyards in Gabutti in Serralunga d’Alba are unanimously regarded as one of the most prestigious ‘crus’ of the Barolo-producing area.  They are located at the centre of a land with an extraordinary vocation for growing nebbiolo, a vine which produces wines with remarkable character and structure perfect for ageing.  This is the birthplace of Barolo OtinFiorin Piè Rupestris: it is 100% Serralunga in its character ‒ a paradigmatic wine thanks to its severe and authoritative tone, with an austere but also generous and sharing manner ‒ as well as in the organoleptic characteristics: liquorice, juniper, tar, balsamic notes, spices and undergrowth are just the most recognisable and typical expressions of an aromatic patrimony which sketches, year after year, a veritable narration of the land.  This is made authentic and trustworthy by our unequivocally natural choices and by an attitude alien to mediation. A narration which changes and evolves in time, under the sig...

2013 M. Marengo Barolo Bricco Viole, Barolo DOCG. (Far too young today...) "A bottle of good wine, like a good act, shines ever in the retrospect" - Robert Louis Stevenson. Add caption

This was a very nice Nebbiolo, light colored with intoxicating aromatics, and a surprising balmy and rich bouquet, concentrated fruit with hints of plum, licorice and perhaps also with slight nuances of violets. Silky ripe tannins with typical acidity. (Wine Spectator gave this wine 91 points for the vintage of 2009.) A great wine in summary… Producer Notes: Deep ruby red color with garnet shades. Fresh fragrance with hints of red fruits, hibiscus and rose supported by intense balsamic and spicy sensations. The taste is warm, persistent and elegant with a pleasant ending of licorice and almond, confirming it as a wine of character, austere, compact .

2004 Elio Grasso Barolo Ginestra Casa Maté. Distinct tannins, cherries, violets, roses, ham/meat with some wood and a hint of tobacco. Grape:  Nebbiolo First vintage:  1978 Aspect and height above sea level:  south-facing, 300-350 metres Soil type:  moderately loose-packed, slightly clayey, limestone-based Vine training system and planting density:  Guyot-trained at 4,500 vines per hectare Average age of productive vines:  around 40 years Harvest period and method:  second 10 days of October, manual harvest The vinification procedure for Barolo Ginestra Casa Matè involves alcoholic fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, with daily pumping over. After completing malolactic fermentation, the wine matures in 25-hectolitre barrels of Slavonian oak. Bottling normally takes place in August. The Barolo Ginestra Casa Matè then stays in the binning cellar for 8-10 months before release. Front Label