2004 - Barolo Monprivato Ca D'Morissio Riserva, Giuseppe Mascarello e Figlio

The 2004 Barolo Riserva Monprivato Ca d’Morissio is totally seamless and beautiful. It possesses gorgeous textural richness and finesse with virtually no perception of tannin. Rose petals, flowers, raspberries and mint come alive in the glass, but it is the wine’s subtle yet insistent chalky minerality that is the thread that holds the wine together. This is a hugely impressive Barolo with a bright future. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2034. One of the great tastings in Piemonte is sitting down with Mauro Mascarello and his son Giuseppe, and going through all of their wines from barrel. Vintage 2008 is looking good so far. The wines have great transparency to site and plenty of personality. Mascarello planned to bottle the 2008 Baroli during the summer of 2012. Importers: Polaner Selections, Mt. Kisco, NY; tel. (914) 244-0404, The Rare Wine Co., Sonoma, CA; tel. (707) 996-4484

(bottled barely ten days prior to my visit) Good medium red. Sexy, wild aromas and flavors of strawberry, mocha, coffee and minerals. Intensely flavored, fat and sweet, perhaps more concentrated and voluminous than the regular Monprivato as this is 100% from the michet clone, which typically produces smaller berries. There's an almost flinty, smoky minerality to the lush flavors of wild red berries. Finishes long, round and full, with layered, thoroughly ripe tannins. I would not be at all surprised if this merited a 95-point score eight or ten years down the road.

Pale ruby beginning to show orange. At first almost herbal with huge minerality but not giving away much else. A touch of horse saddle, which blurred the nose somewhat but disappears with aeration. Beautiful, elegant palate weight and grainy tannin. Perfect balancing acidy, but not knit together yet. Very tactile and compact. Stratospherically priced. (WS)