Massolino, Barolo (Piedmont, Italy) 2020 ($65, Vineyard Brands)

Massolino produces three single MGA (or “cru” bottlings of Barolo from excellent sites in the prized vineyards around the village of Serralunga plus a spectacular Barolo Riserva from the great Vigna Rionda MGA. That could result in a misimpression that the straight Barolo DCG from this house is comprised of the “leavings” from Massolino’s various vineyards, but the performance of this wine belies that notion in almost every vintage. Franco Massolino told me that the family “takes great care to never make a single mistake with it,” as it is the wine that will often be the first from the house that consumers taste. Any vineyard parcel or lot of wine that doesn’t make the grade for this wine is dropped down into Massolino’s Langhe Nebbiolo. The 2020 shows the vintage’s wonderful combination of open flavors with serious structure from tannins that are abundant but ripe and unaggressive. This will undoubtedly become significantly more complex in both bouquet and flavor during the next seven years (at a minimum), but it will be indisputably delicious now for those who aerate it and serve it with food.
93 Michael Franz