Region: Barolo, Piedmont
Variety: Nebbiolo
Vintage: 2021
Country: Italy
The Wine
Pio Cesare’s Mosconi is a newer single-vineyard bottling than Ornato, first released with the 2015 vintage, but it has already established itself as one of the estate’s most important cru wines. Where Ornato channels the stricter, more linear personality of Serralunga, Mosconi comes from Monforte d’Alba and speaks with a broader, more expansive voice — still structured, still serious, but often more textural and enveloping in style.
The wine is sourced from the family’s holdings in the celebrated Mosconi cru, including some very old Nebbiolo vines planted in 1947 and 1971 at roughly 390 metres elevation. That old-vine material gives the wine a slow-building intensity and real inner depth. Fruit is softly crushed and destemmed, fermented in stainless steel, and left on skins for more than 30 days before maturation in large oak and a modest proportion of French oak. It is a regime designed to preserve fruit authority and vineyard character while shaping the tannins into something noble rather than aggressive.
Mosconi is one of Monforte’s great sites for Barolo, and Pio Cesare’s expression of it leans into that grandeur. There is breadth here, but it is disciplined breadth — not heaviness. In 2021, with its long, steady season and classical ripening curve, the wine captures both the natural muscle of the vineyard and the finesse of the vintage.
Cellared Says
Mosconi always feels a touch more expansive and seductive than Ornato, but this is still profoundly serious Barolo. There is richness here, yes, but also lift, savoury nuance and a tannin profile that feels sculpted rather than imposed. And again, the vintage is central to the story. 2021 in Barolo is shaping as a generational release because it delivered that rare overlap of structure, fruit weight and finesse. These are wines with decades ahead of them, but they are not buried behind austerity. That is what makes them so exciting. Mosconi shows the warmer, more ample side of great Barolo in 2021, but with superb control and freshness.
Wine Reviews
“A structured and layered Barolo showing aromas of red and dark cherries, orange peel and spice. Full-bodied with firm, polished tannins and a long, persistent finish. Built for ageing.”
96 points, James Suckling
Galloni notes dark red fruit, iron, white pepper, incense, tobacco, licorice, dried herbs and rose petal, praising the balance between Mosconi’s natural power and Pio Cesare’s classical restraint.
96 points, Vinous, Antonio Galloni
Region: Barolo, Piedmont
Variety: Nebbiolo
Vintage: 2021
Country: Italy
The Wine
Pio Cesare’s Mosconi is a newer single-vineyard bottling than Ornato, first released with the 2015 vintage, but it has already established itself as one of the estate’s most important cru wines. Where Ornato channels the stricter, more linear personality of Serralunga, Mosconi comes from Monforte d’Alba and speaks with a broader, more expansive voice — still structured, still serious, but often more textural and enveloping in style.
The wine is sourced from the family’s holdings in the celebrated Mosconi cru, including some very old Nebbiolo vines planted in 1947 and 1971 at roughly 390 metres elevation. That old-vine material gives the wine a slow-building intensity and real inner depth. Fruit is softly crushed and destemmed, fermented in stainless steel, and left on skins for more than 30 days before maturation in large oak and a modest proportion of French oak. It is a regime designed to preserve fruit authority and vineyard character while shaping the tannins into something noble rather than aggressive.
Mosconi is one of Monforte’s great sites for Barolo, and Pio Cesare’s expression of it leans into that grandeur. There is breadth here, but it is disciplined breadth — not heaviness. In 2021, with its long, steady season and classical ripening curve, the wine captures both the natural muscle of the vineyard and the finesse of the vintage.
Cellared Says
Mosconi always feels a touch more expansive and seductive than Ornato, but this is still profoundly serious Barolo. There is richness here, yes, but also lift, savoury nuance and a tannin profile that feels sculpted rather than imposed. And again, the vintage is central to the story. 2021 in Barolo is shaping as a generational release because it delivered that rare overlap of structure, fruit weight and finesse. These are wines with decades ahead of them, but they are not buried behind austerity. That is what makes them so exciting. Mosconi shows the warmer, more ample side of great Barolo in 2021, but with superb control and freshness.
Wine Reviews
“A structured and layered Barolo showing aromas of red and dark cherries, orange peel and spice. Full-bodied with firm, polished tannins and a long, persistent finish. Built for ageing.”
96 points, James Suckling
Galloni notes dark red fruit, iron, white pepper, incense, tobacco, licorice, dried herbs and rose petal, praising the balance between Mosconi’s natural power and Pio Cesare’s classical restraint.
96 points, Vinous, Antonio Galloni
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