Barolo Secret Meeting in Pantagruel
Notes from a Barolo night that got beautifully out of hand
There's this Nebbiolo club we have. Nothing official, just a handful of enthusiasts who gather when someone gets that particular itch - the one that only aged Piedmont can scratch. Almost always blind, everyone brings a bottle; nobody knows what they're drinking until the reveal. It's educational masochism at its finest.
This time, Vasyl went rogue. Hauled in a selection from Germany, curated with the kind of precision that makes you both grateful and slightly terrified. Four core Barolos, he said. But then the evening took on its own momentum - you know how it goes when the wines are singing and nobody wants to stop. One "just one more" turned into three more bottles appearing from nowhere, each more intriguing than the last.
Where else but Osteria Pantagruel? When you're drinking wines that have been sleeping for decades, you need food that understands the assignment and a room that lets you concentrate. No background music (well, except for distant street musicians), no theatre - just the wines doing their slow reveal.
The lineup that emerged was genuinely educational - from Giuseppe Mascarello's architectural Dolcetto (that drinks nothing like Dolcetto) through to Gaja's controversial Sito Moresco, a wine that shouldn't work but absolutely does. Twenty-nine years of Vigna Munie, twenty-four years of Vigna Rionda, experiments and traditions colliding across seven glasses.
What follows are the combined scores and my personal notes from our blind encounter with these bottles - some expected, some that made us question everything we thought we knew about Nebbiolo and its neighbours.
Mascarello Giuseppe e Figlio Dolcetto d'Alba Vigna Bricco Mirasole 2019
- Region
- Italy » Piedmont » Dolcetto d'Alba DOC
- Type
- red still, dry
- Producer
- Vintage
- 2019
- Grapes
- Dolcetto
- Alcohol
- 14
- Sugar
- 0.32
- Volume
- 750 mL
- Find at

This wine secured the 🏅 7th place in our wine tasting lineup.
Acid sweets and wild red berries meet exotic pepper - the kind that whispers of pine and menthol, like those Malagasy-Congolese-Indonesian blends that make you pay attention. Sky-high acidity running through a surprisingly delicate frame; the tannins are dry but the body stays thin, berry-focused, almost kissel-like in its bright fruit suspension. Smoky coffee emerges on the finish, adding depth to what initially seems simple. Blind, I'd never have called this Dolcetto - it's too ethereal, too acidic, too interesting. The kind of wine that makes you question what you think you know.
Giacomo Anselma Barolo Vigna Rionda Riserva 2001
- Region
- Italy » Piedmont » Barolo DOCG
- Type
- red still, dry
- Producer
- Vintage
- 2001
- Grapes
- Nebbiolo
- Alcohol
- 14
- Volume
- 750 mL
- Find at

This wine secured the 🥈 2nd place in our wine tasting lineup.
Obviously old, and wearing its age with dignity. Pickles drift into dried flowers and earth, old cherry preserves gone dark and leathery. Tar weeps through like Latakia smoke in an empty room. The tannins still grip - sandy, persistent - but the fruit has retreated, leaving concentration without exuberance. This is old-school Nebbiolo doing what old-school Nebbiolo does: trading youth's brightness for something more haunting. Twenty-four years on, it's become a study in texture and memory rather than fruit.
Luigi Baudana Barolo Baudana 2005
- Region
- Italy » Piedmont » Barolo DOCG
- Type
- red still, dry
- Producer
- Wine
- Vintage
- 2005
- Grapes
- Nebbiolo
- Alcohol
- 14.5
- Volume
- 750 mL
- Find at

This wine secured the 🏅 5th place in our wine tasting lineup.
Floral and fruited, almost perfumed, with this odd iodine-walnut thing threading through the sweetness. The oak shows its hand too strongly - a bit aggressive for my taste. But beneath that woody insistence, there's proper muscle here, structure that holds everything together. It's caught between elegance and power, not quite reconciling the two. Still thoroughly drinkable, just wish the cooper had shown more restraint.
Parusso Barolo Bussia Vigna Munie 1996

This wine secured the 🥇 1st place in our wine tasting lineup.
Oh, this is beautiful. Cherry and flowers with hints of pomegranate, everything knit together into something complete and complex. Twenty-nine years have given it depth without stealing its life - still vibrantly alive, just speaking more quietly now. The balance is spot on: juicy and round but with structure you can actually chew on, the kind that invites contemplation rather than demands submission. This is what great Nebbiolo does with time - becomes itself more fully. A wine that makes you slow down, pay attention, and genuinely appreciate what patience can bring.
Sandrone Barolo Le Vigne 2000
- Region
- Italy » Piedmont » Barolo DOCG
- Type
- red still, dry
- Producer
- Wine
- Vintage
- 2000
- Grapes
- Nebbiolo
- Alcohol
- 14
- Volume
- 750 mL
- Find at

This wine secured the 🏅 6th place in our wine tasting lineup.
Oh, this is dangerously friendly - a crowd-pleaser in silk gloves. Chocolate-drenched strawberries and black cherries, everything immediately legible, no decoder ring needed. Liquorice weaves through the sweetness, adding just enough depth to keep it interesting. Round, silky, long - the kind of wine that makes everyone at the table happy without making anyone think too hard. It's the accessible face of aged Nebbiolo, trading some complexity for pure drinkability. Sometimes that's exactly what you want.
Schiavenza Barolo Prapò 2014
- Region
- Italy » Piedmont » Barolo DOCG
- Type
- red still, dry
- Producer
- Wine
- Vintage
- 2014
- Grapes
- Nebbiolo
- Alcohol
- 14
- Volume
- 750 mL
- Find at

This wine secured the 🏅 4th place in our wine tasting lineup.
Autumn leaves and red fruits, forest floor with scattered flowers. Still young at eleven years, juicy and fruit-forward but with this unexpected elegance - thin, refined, beautiful. It's still keeping secrets, not fully open, but what it shows is already delicious. For Serralunga, this is surprisingly delicate. Expected more muscle, more power from that terroir, but this chooses grace over force.
Gaja Sito Moresco 1995
- Region
- Italy » Piedmont » Langhe DOC
- Type
- red still, dry
- Producer
- Wine
- Vintage
- 1995
- Grapes
- Nebbiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
- Alcohol
- 13
- Volume
- 750 mL
- Find at

This wine secured the 🥉 3rd place in our wine tasting lineup.
Whoa, this is wild. Opens salty and funky like Stilton cheese, then suddenly pivots into chocolate, Icelandic moss, earth, meat, and cellar must. But somehow stays juicy, almost Coca-Cola-like - that Curiosity Cola with its botanical complexity. Blind, they told us 'Nebbiolo with something,' so naturally I'm thinking typical Langhe partners. Then they say 'think unconventional' and boom - Cab with Merlot jumps right out. Mental! Thirty years old and still throwing curveballs. This is an unicorn wine. And pretty.