Bartolo Mascarello, Barolo DOCG

The late Bartolo Mascarello was Barolo's great traditionalist — a producer of fierce principle who opposed both the Barolo Wars' modernist tendencies and the political establishment with equal conviction. His single-vineyard-blended Barolo is the appellation's philosophical statement: complex, austere in youth, and built for a generation of ageing. The estate, now run by his daughter Maria Teresa, maintains every principle intact. This is Barolo as cultural artefact — important, irreplaceable and profound.