The estate of Giuseppe Mascarello e Figlio has a long and illustrious history in Piemonte, and is unequivocally one of the greatest Barolo producers. This traditionally-styled winery is now run by Mauro Mascarello, who is the fourth generation of the family to head the domaine, along with his daughter, Elena. The estate’s origins date back to the mid-1800s, when Giuseppe Mascarello made a name for himself managing the vineyards of other landowners, and which ultimately culminated in the purchase of his own vineyards and cellars in 1881 in the village of Monforte d’Alba.

The six hectare Monprivato vineyard is beautifully situated facing southwest, in the town of Castiglione Falletto. The Mascarellos now own nearly all of Monprivato. For four generations the winemaking style of the Mascarellos has followed a traditional approach that allows for the brilliant underlying terroir of all of their wines, and Monprivato in particular, to take center stage.

Mauro Mascarello is often described as “an enlightened traditionalist” when it comes to his winemaking approach. Now assisted ably by his son Giuseppe, there are no new French oak barrels or roto-fermenters to be found in the Mascarellos’ cellars, as the wines continue to be made in the old Slavonian oak botti purchased by his father in the 1950s. The Barolos are macerated for about thirty days during fermentation, raised for approximately three and a half years in old wood, and then bottled unfined and unfiltered. Unerringly they are always amongst the finest examples of their respective vintages, which blossom after six to ten years of bottle age and evolve brilliantly over the ensuing twenty-five to forty years.