2017 Massolino "Parafada" Barolo

5,200 bottle production from 60+ year old vines from Serralunga d'Alba. Often the most muscular and brawny wine of the portfolio, but in the warm vintage delivers a softness and approachability rarely seen in this cru. 

MASSOLINO: A SERRALUNGA STORY
A Seventh Place finish in the  Wine Spectator Top Ten last year catapulted one of the wine community's beloved producers into stardom. This prized Serralunga d'Alba estate was founded in the 1930s and remains family-owned today. It holds some of the most valuable crus in Serralunga, which is known for the strongest wines in Barolo. The next generation has built on the previous generation, and with their recent move towards open-top fermenters the elegance and sophistication of these wines has never been better. In particular, you'll find a fanaticism amongst Barolo hounds for the Vigna Rionda, which has a reputation due to an especially infamous run of "Collina Rionda" bottlings that Bruno Giacosa did from 1967 to 1993. The 1989 Giacosa "Collina Rionda" is touted as one of the best Barolo ever made. Although from different parcels, as the largest landholder of Vigna Rionda, we would say that Massolino proudly carries on this tradition. Stylistically if these two weren't warm vintages (2015 and 2017) I'd tell you to hold your horses, but the wines are drinking much earlier these days, even from a steely, hard-edged terroir like this. The flavors are traditional but not stubbornly so, with dried red fruits, anise and licorice, caked, dusty baking spices and iron-y mineral and mushroom notes.