89pts Wine Advocate
From a hot and early-ripening vintage, the Giuseppe Mascarello 2022 Langhe Freisa Toetto delivers medium-dark concentration and good fullness with monotone cherry and blackberry. This grape shows less precision in 2022 to offer an accessible, easy-drinking style. Interestingly, Freisa is seen as one of the varietals equipped to affront the challenges of climate change. Drinking Window: 2025 – 2028

Visiting Cantina Giuseppe Mascarello & Figli is in some ways a bit like traveling back in time: the winery is full of ancient, enormous botti, and though the largest casks are no longer in use, the family traditions still reign. Fermentations are slow, in concrete and steel; aging is long, in large oak botti ranging from 20 to 70 years of age. There are no tricks to doll the wines up. Farming decisions are made with an eye not only to the current vintage, but to future generations of Mascarellos.

However visiting Mascarello isn’t just stepping into the past: a visit is being welcomed into a space where you can feel the profound connection between the present and what has come before, the thread that ties todays Piedmont to its rich and wonderful history.

Elena and her brother, Giuseppe, are the latest Mascarellos to carry the thread forward, and they’re doing it beautifully, which shows in the wines. The family has some of Piedmont’s greatest terroirs, including Monprivato (often called the Musigny of Barolo). They do what they need to do to allow those terroirs to shine year after year, in each new vintages unique voice.