Riconoscimenti

This is so curated and fine, with a tannin structure that is both sophisticated and racy. Medium to full body. Silky texture with a finish that just takes off. Rose stems and dark fruit, such as plums and strawberries. Some black truffles, too. These are from vineyards planted in 1960 and 1970. Try after 2025.

My favorite of the Pio Cesare wines at this tasting, the 2019 Barolo Mosconi displays great balance in is notes of raspberry liqueur, pressed roses, and blood orange. With fine, ripe tannins and a note of salty mineral earth, it is fresh and persistent with ripe red fruit and orange peel and is long on the palate. Drink 2025-2045.

Compared to the Ornato, the 2018 Barolo Mosconi (with fruit from Monforte d'Alba) shows a tighter and more compact quality with a direct, linear and powerful approach. The bouquet builds in vertical intensity, starting with tart fruit aromas and culminating with tar, rusted nail and camphor ash. That aromatic ascent comes at you quickly, and the wine ultimately settles on a very wide, all-encompassing performance.

The 2018 Barolo Mosconi is superb. It offers up a complex mélange of rose petal, dried herbs, iron, graphite, smoke, incense, scorched earth and blood orange, capturing all the complexity that makes the best Barolos from this site so compelling. Powerful and deep, yet also quite elegant, the 2018 is another fine Barolo from an estate that has undergone a pretty significant stylistic shift over the last handful of years.

Very compact both on the nose and palate, offering dried red berries and notes of truffle-tinged sous-bois and dried flowers. Full-bodied with a fine-tannin framework and a very long finish. Compact and solid. This needs plenty of time to open, but is showing real class. Try from 2025.

Rich, with plum and cherry flavors, this Barolo also shows a savory side of eucalyptus, licorice and clove. Reveals viscosity to the texture as well as terrific balance. Ends with dense, refined tannins and lingering steeped fruit and savory notes. Best from 2025 through 2042.

Subtle aromas of crushed stone and cherry with dried strawberry and white truffle, following through to a full body. Yet it is tight and very tannic with a fine-grained texture and a long, intense finish. A superb combination of structure and finesse. Very typical for Mosconi and the Ginestre area. Exceptional. Try after 2026.

Aromas of underbrush, camphor, purple flower and forest berry slowly take shape in this classy, full-bodied red. It combines structure and finesse, featuring crushed raspberry, juicy Marasca cherry, tobacco and baking spice framed in taut, elegant tannins. Fresh acidity keeps it nicely balanced.

Now in its third vintage, this is the newest member of the extended Pio Cesare family. With fruit from the village of Monforte d'Alba, the 2017 Barolo Mosconi hits that sweet spot somewhere on the continuum between elegance and power. Perhaps this hot vintage (and its 14.5% alcohol content) inches a little closer to the side of power, but it does so in a most understated and graceful manner. The wine shows the freshness and lifted fruit that is normally associated with this special vineyard site.

The 2017 Barolo Mosconi is a beautiful, translucent wine that expresses too much of the best this site has to offer. Iron, dried herbs, chalk and white pepper give the Mosconi its signature aromatic profile. Pio Cesare's Mosconi is the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove. It's mid-weight structure and light (even for Nebbiolo) color can be deceiving. There is certainly plenty of punch here.

Mosconi is an MGA that is often picked late and so could possibly have benefitted from the warm and dry 2017 vintage. This example from Pio Cesare is focused on elegance with lifted, concentrated aromas and flavours of orange peel, strawberry jam, rose and a touch of smoke, which all become intoxicating on the palate. This great intensity and concentration are supported by firm, muscular tannins and an assertive finish, combined with crisp acidity. Rarely in this 2017 vintage do we find this combination of fruit weight and strength of structure.

Bright cherry and currant flavors are matched to savory notes of eucalyptus, juniper and rosemary in this intense red, with an underlying mineral streak. Overall, this is balanced and long. Best from 2024 through 2043.

Really attractive blue fruit and flowers with hints of minerals. Full- bodied, very tight and sexy with super fine tannins, at the same time. A structured and racy young wine. Better after 2021.

This is the second vintage released of this new wine from Pio Cesare, and what an elegant treat it is. The 2016 Barolo Mosconi, with fruit from Monforte d'Alba, is a toned and slender wine that shows the inner power and muscle of this corner of the appellation. The bouquet is defined by a pretty mineral note that is backed by wild berry fruit, rose petal and a dusting of crushed stone or tilled earth. I feel the tight tannins of this wine, but I also taste the elegance of the fruit that surrounds them. Only 5,000 bottles were produced. Mosconi is the second single-vineyard Barolo made by this estate after the Ornato was introduced 30 years ago.

Woodland-berry, pine-forest and rose aromas mingle with whiffs of dark spice and menthol. On the full-bodied palate, firm fine-grained tannins accompany juicy Marasca cherry, cranberry and licorice while fresh acidity keeps well balanced. Drink 2024–2036.

This is round, polished and powerful, its black cherry, blackberry and plum fruit shaded by mineral, eucalyptus and tobacco accents. All the components are in the right proportions and there is energy on the long finish. Best from 2023 through 2045.

The 2016 Barolo Mosconi shows all of the breadth and amplitude that is typical of wines from this Monforte site. Tar, licorice, rose petal, mint, incense and dried herbs all develop with time in the glass. The 2016 is a powerhouse. I would give it at least a few years in bottle.

Pio Cesare acquired an extensive parcel within Mosconi in 2014, but only the oldest vines are used for the cru wine. The nose is packed with fruit, powerful and intense, with explosive cherry and strawberry aromas, and a light savory tone. Rich and broad, this is a wine with swagger and spice, and despite its heft it's finely tuned and polished. Elegant and persistent, it shows integrated tannins and a savory tone. Very long.

This is the second vin¬tage of this wine for Pio Cesare, the fruit com¬ing from the oldest vines (planted in 1947) in a 25-acre plot the family bought in 2014. Initially austere, the wine fleshes out with air to reveal scents of lavender and thyme, along with rich fruit flavors of plum and black cherry edged in notes of tobacco and spice. Its densely packed tannins are slow to unfurl and will benefit from cellar time.

The cherry and strawberry flavors pick up eucalyptus and tar accents as this evolves on the palate. Lean and muscular, with vivid acidity and dense tannins plying the lingering finish. Austere now. Best from 2023 through 2040. 400 cases made, 75 cases imported.

Here is a first taste of a new wine from Pio Cesare following the estate’s acquisition of vines in the Mosconi cru of Monforte d’Alba a few years back. The 2015 Barolo Mosconi opens to a less complicated bouquet with steady and clean aromas of wild berry, balsam or grilled herb and crushed stone. My sample did take a little extra time to open, but once it did, the wine presented all the detailed and nuanced characteristics of the grape with pinpoint precision. It’s great to welcome a new wine to the greater Barolo family. Only 5,000 bottles were made.

Incredibly perfumed with unique aromas of white truffles. peaches. dark berries and dried flowers. Fresh and bright. Full body. very silky tannins and a long and gorgeous finish. So progressive and seamless. Magnificent. First vintage of this single vineyard wine. Only 5.000. Starting drinking in 2023.

Pio Cesare’s newest wine, this is produced from the recently purchased Mosconi vineyard in Monforte d’Alba. The sale went through just a few days before Pio Boffa’s 60th birthday, and 30 years after the first release of the estate’s original single-vineyard Barolo. Ornato. Originally purchased to enrich the ‘classic’ Barolo, the wine Mosconi’s old vines – dating back to 1947 and 1971 – produced was deemed exceptional enough that Pio Cesare decided to make it into a standalone wine. Unlike most of Pio Cesare’s other reds, this spends the majority of time in barrique rather than botti, which seems to suit its powerful personality. It has a red hedgerow fruit aroma with a touch of orange peel and a savoury edge. The palate has good density with very fine tannins, combined with very fresh acidity and rich. plummy fruits with some cedary notes. It’s lighter than the denser Ornato showing more red fruit, but, like its sibling is surprisingly light on its feet for such a substantial wine. It finishes with a lovely lick of sweet, elegant cherry fruit and a touch of woody vanilla. A very good first attempt. I expect we will see the estate refining the recipe for this wine over the next few vintages. Drinking Window 2020 – 2040