1996 Barolo Parafada
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Tasting notes
The 1996 Barolo Parafada has held up beautifully. Crushed flowers, mint, sweet red berries and anise are all nicely laced together. At the time, the Parafada was partially aged in French oak barriques, and that comes through in the wine's texture and flavor profile. A beautifully balanced wine, the 1996 has enough freshness to provide pleasure for another decade or more. The natural richness of this site plus the extra richness from the French oak yield an especially dense wine relative to the other Barolos in the Massolino range.
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Average Score
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The outstanding dark ruby/garnet-colored 1996 Barolo Vigna Parafada offers aromas of cigar box, cherry liqueur, licorice, and spice, dense, intense, old style, concentrated, sour cherry flavors with glycerin and extract. Rich and approachable, it will evolve nicely for 12-15 years. Importer: A Leonardo Locascio Selection, Winebow, Hohokus, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620
Full ruby-red. Riper aromas of red cherry, cocoa powder and licorice. Broader and richer than this producer other '96 Barolos, with deeper flavors of cherry, spice, shoe polish and licorice. Still shows an edge of greenness, but here the tannins are more supported by the wine's extract and communicate a riper impression. This bottling is from more densely planted vines and a lower yield, and was aged partly in barriques Very backward an in need of bottle aging.