Tasting Notes: The nose of the Lino Maga Barbacarlo is very expressive and intense with nuances of porcini mushroom, tar, fennel seed, cured meat and dried floral and dehydrated undertones. The wine is explosive on the palate yet all seamlessly tied together and perfectly integrated.
Estate History: Commendatore Lino Maga’s family has been making wine since 1886. Their vineyards cling to a very steep slope surrounded by forest in the hills outside Broni, in the Oltrepò Pavese part of Lombardia. Four hectares of 50-year-old vines are planted at 300 meters above sea level on tufo soils and exposed southwest, basking all day in sunlight. It is a site worth fighting for, and Lino spent 23 years doing just that, waging a legal battle against the authorities to ensure this monopole his family had tended for so long was recognized as their own.
Vineyard work is decidedly old school, done mostly by hand and avoiding the use of chemicals and come harvest time a rigorous selection of grapes is made. The wines are made the same way they always have been here. They are wild fermented in ancient casks with no temperature control, racked with the turn of the moon and bottled with nothing added in the spring. Unusually, the wines finish fermentation here, resulting in bottles that differ markedly from year to year – something Lino rejoices in, unlike many other wineries.
