Castello di Verduno

Barolo, Massara, 2018

Name: Barolo, Massara
Brand: Castello di Verduno
Price: 359.53 GBP

94/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

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2018
75cl
DP
£59.92
2018
6x75cl
DP
£359.53

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

A flashier, more aromatic and exuberant profile in 2018, the Massara has a ripe red fruited nature with touches of balsamic, citrus and sandalwood. The warmer more humid summer in 2018 coming after the drought of 2017 meant that the vineyards were especially vigorous, and Mario explained that it was one of the very few vintages where he needed to carry out a strict green harvest to reduce the yield. This, it seems, was the key to unlock the wine’s seamless, enveloping fruit profile with no trace of dilution. Fermented in wooden vat as usual with submerged cap, however time on the skins was reduced to 25-30 days. Aged for 2 years in large cask and held back for additional time in bottle, rather than the customary 3 years in wood.

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GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of upmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

94/100

Antonio Galloni,

Vinous

The 2018 Barolo Massara is impressive. Deep and yet weightless, the Massara captures much of the best this tricky vintage has to offer. Wild cherry, rose petal, mint, dried herbs, orange peel and exotic spice notes abound. This layered Verduno Barolo is superb and also distinctive.

drinking window 2026 - 2032

date of review 02/2022

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Specifications

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abv:

14%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.