2005 Italy

We are very happy about this wine.  It is elegant, fine, balanced, complex, long on the taste and at the same time already drinkable and enjoyable; it is an inviting wine.  About the grapes, the 2005 vintage has been a very good one, with fine weather and proper seasonal weather (some necessary rain showers in summer but nothing serious); a very good September which allowed a perfect maturation of the grapes until the end of September (generally speaking the best period for picking grapes here).

Harvest was at the end of September with very healthy and ripe grapes, quantity above our “normal” very low average production but it is always a very low yield here (around 15 hl/ha). Natural fermentation has been, I would say, “easy” and the evolution with ageing in our large, traditional botti has well developed the initial promise of the high quality of the fruit. We bottled the Brunello 2005 Riserva in March 2011 (11,000 bottles in total).
Gianfranco Soldera - winemaker

While vintage 2004 was darker and fulsome, Maria Teresa's 2005 lifts the soul with a spirited spicy red fruit perfume, a delicate, gentle, velvety cherry stone palate and a sublime quality that perhaps only the Cantina Mascarello Bartolo can muster. Getting ahead of the Oct 10th rain seemed key to performing well in 2005, after what was a relatively mild summer. This is perhaps an apt advertisement for the benefits of blending vineyards together, four into one; a philosophy the Cantina holds dear. An Englishman’s Barolo? It's certainly sings of finesse. Drinking till 2020, along with lamb (Maria Teresa's favourite meat).
(David Berry Green)

Subtle aromas of rose and blackberry follow through to a full body, with fine tannins and a fresh finish. Unfolds on the palate. Layered and beautiful. Refined yet structured.
Wine Spectator - 30 Sept 2008