Marcarini Barolo La Serra 2019 - $127.50 25% off – It’s graceful and delicious (96) KERIN OKEEFE
Marcarini remains one of the best values in traditionally made, cellar-worthy Barolo. ANTONIO GALLONI
The 2019s remind me of the legendary 1989s: An extraordinary vintage from another era that produced Barolos with complexity and unusually ripe fruit for the times but that were also racy and extremely tense. While the ‘89s needed years to fully develop, even at their debut, they promised greatness and longevity. KERIN O'KEEFE
2019 may be the last time an electrifying, fresh and tannic vintage has been gifted to us in Barolo – at least for the foreseeable future. WALTER SPELLER MW, jancisrobinson.com
a stellar vintage in 2019 that could very well represent the beginning of a new cycle of strong, outstanding years for this historic appellation. The 2019s are potent, tightly wound wines that will thrill readers who appreciate the nuance, subtlety and structure of Nebbiolo. ANTONIO GALLONI, Vinous.com
The 2019 Barolo La Serra is a super-classic wine from this La Morra site. ANTONIO GALLONI
I think if you have been buying Italian wine in Australia for a good while you are likely to have some Marcarini in your cellar somewhere. It’s an old school stalwart that has been producing wines in the top of the pile for long before I was able to drink. Some of the first Barolo I ever tried came from this estate, and some of the best over the years as well.
With that being said, it is also unquestionably making better wines today than it has over the time I have been drinking them and the older years I have been fortunate enough to try. There is more poise, brighter fruit, an overall more polished feel today. Like many of the best producers in the region, Marcarini has evolved in to something that slides in to both the traditional and modern camps, my sweet spot. The winemaking is old school but the understanding of the how and why is obvious in the more slick and detailed expressions that they are now releasing.
For me Marcarini has reached new heights in the last large handful of releases, this was no more apparent as when I tasted this outlandishly good 2019 La Serra on Tuesday with the crew. It takes all the best parts of 2019, the perfume, gloriously sumptuous fruit and vivacity of La Morra, the distinct florality of La Serra with its fine grained tannins and it slides it in to this captivating young Barolo that hits all the right notes.
It is genuinely a thrill to see a producer that you have been following for a very long time to grow and mature like this, to reshape itself and its wines and continue to make the improvements that are the hallmark of any genuinely top estate.
I’ll put my hand on my heart and say this is the best young example of this wine I can remember tasting and is a new high water mark for Marcarini and this Cru. My hat off to the team.
The cherry on the cake here is that Marcarini has not followed many of their neighbours in raising prices drastically in recent years. They were once on the upper end of the price scale, due to their status as one of the region’s premier producers, today though they look positively cheap compared to the majority of their contemporaries. Thankfully. We can hopefully all afford to buy some of this beauty and stash it away for a decade or so and wait for it to hit the inevitable heights that are in store for the patient among us.
I have asked the importer how much we can take and that is only 15 dozen. I imagine that will get snapped up pretty quickly, so don’t sit on your hands if you are keen. These should fly out like the Millenium Falcon piloted by Lando Calrissian after they blow the main reactor on the second death star… yeah, I am planning a Star Wars marathon this weekend.
As a wee aside, I was looking through a previous offer for these wines, I found this from Michael a couple of years ago “If I was to pinpoint wines that began my journey and subsequent love affair with Barolo then I will always include Manuel Marchetti's stable of wines from his Marcarini estate. They were some of the first to communicate the beauty of Nebbiolo and set me on a path to want to discover more of what the variety and region had to offer. I know many of you have had a similar experience with Marcarini over the years.” That sums up my feelings better than I think I had.