1995 Barolo Monvigliero

Today, Alessandria’s 1995 Barolo Monvigliero is gorgeous. Hints of volatile acidity blow off with air, revealing a dense, powerful old-school wine endowed with serious depth from the vintage and three years of aging in cask. Somber and muscular, the 1995 doesn’t show much of the seductiveness that is typical of Monvigliero, instead it is quite virile, with balsamic overtones that wrap around a core of dark fruit. These days, even the most classic Barolos are much more polished than they were twenty years ago. While Alessandria’s 1995 Monvigliero is not especially elegant, it does harken back to a super-traditional style that, for better or worse, does not exist much in Barolo anymore. There is something very human about the wine’s small flaws that make the 1995 fascinating and simply impossible to put down. I wonder why I don’t own more of it…