Marolo Barolo Grappa di Barolo 13yo 53.8%

MAROLO GRAPPA DI BAROLO 13YO 53,8%

Nebbiolo Spirit

It’s always interesting to have a look at the other side of the Alps, where they’re also very familiar with wine, and a bit with marc distillation. And among all the Italian wines, you’ve got a famous one – the Piemont King: Barolo. Marolo is a bottler founded in 1977, focused on various grappas bottling, and they’re located in Alba, the heart of Langhe (another great Italian vineyard). Let’s try this 13yo dram with an appealing geeky ABV (53,8%).

Colour: Pale gold, green lights. Small regular tears. 

Nose: Full of herbal shades at first. Full of briny notes, mainly on black olives. Hay, young grape, verjus. Fresh paint and linseed oil scents in the background. Hints of bourbon vanilla too. 

Palate: Oily texture. Green grape, verjus again. Apricot but with a lack of sun (which was quite common in my parents’ garden, back in the 2000s, when summers used to be a bit cooler). Hints of pastry aromas, but way too imprecise. 

Last Notes: Synthetic wood notes, a little bit cardboard-y. Not a good turn for this grappa. However, you get pleasant almond paste scents in the background. Hints of fruitiness, but with a lack of precision again. It ends on vegetal and spiced notes, a nice mix of anise and fennel.

I’ve tried some nice kind of Barolo, but this was my first grappa from this famous vineyard. Wonder how high I can score this kind of spirit, but I’m not a huge fan of this 13yo example. Not a bad one for sure, but I miss precision and depth here.

My very subjective note: 82+/100

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