2014 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino Magnum
| Type of Wine | Red |
|---|---|
| Country | Italy |
| Region | |
| Appellation | |
| Winery | |
| Vintage | 2014 |
| Grape | |
| Content (Alc) | 1.5 ltr (14.5%) |
| Drink window | 2025 - 2060 |
Description
Giacomo Conterno is a prestigious winery in the Piedmont region of Italy, known for producing some of the world's finest Barolo wines. Giacomo Conterno's history and production methods are rich in tradition and have played an important role in establishing Barolo's reputation as a wine of the highest level. The winery was founded by Giacomo Conterno in 1908. He started a small osteria (tavern) in the town of Monforte d'Alba, where he made and served his own wine. In 1920, Giacomo's son, Giovanni Conterno, produced the first vintage of Barolo Monfortino. This wine is named after the village and has since become one of the most celebrated Barolos. In 1934, Giovanni Conterno takes over the winery and begins to refine and perfect the production methods. He focused on producing high-quality, age-worthy Barolo. The Conterno family bought the Cascina Francia vineyard in Serralunga d'Alba in 1961. This vineyard is particularly important because it produces grapes for two of their most renowned wines: Barolo Cascina Francia and Barolo Monfortino. Giacomo Conterno adheres to traditional winemaking techniques, including long macerations and aging in large Slovenian oak barrels. This method preserves the integrity and complexity of the Nebbiolo. The winemaking process focuses on minimal intervention to allow the terroir to be fully expressed in the wine.
The Giacomo Conterno 2014 Barolo Riserva Monfortino is made with 100% fruit of the Francia cru, which is not the case for the 2015 vintage (where there is 22% Arione in the blend) or likely future vintages. In a sense, this 100-point (RP) wine represents a milestone or chapter finale in the long and exciting journey of Italy's collected and respected Monfortino. Roberto Conterno has long called 2014 'the vintage of his heart'. There was challenging rain in the summer, but by the end of August Roberto knew that a spell of warm and dry weather could make 2014 "the vintage of the century," he tells me. At the right time, the heavens opened and the sun shone in September and continued through the harvest in the second half of October. This made this a very long growing season and that is something the Nebbiolo grape likes most. You can taste this in the tannin quality of the wine, which is long, silky soft, elegant and firm. That high-quality texture and structure will carry this bottle through more than half a century of bottling aging, or more.
Specifications
| Block Bundle Options | No |
|---|---|
| Type of Wine | Red |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Piemonte |
| Appellation | Barolo |
| Icons | Icon Italy |
| Winery | Giacomo Conterno |
| Grape | Nebbiolo |
| Biological certified | No |
| Natural wine | No |
| Vegan | No |
| Vintage | 2014 |
| Drinking as of | 2025 |
| Drinking till | 2060 |
| Alcohol % | 14.5 |
| Alcohol free/low | No |
| Content | 1.5 ltr |
| Oak aging | Yes |
| Sparkling | No |
| Dessert wine | No |
| Closure | Cork |
| Parker rating | 100 |
| Vinous rating | 100 |
| Tasting Profiles | Earthy, Rustic, Complex, Dry, Aged on wood, Powerful, Mineral, Red fruit, Tannines |
| Drink moments | Indruk maken, Lekker luxe |
Professional Reviews
Parker
The Wine Advocate
RP 100
Reviewed by: Monica Larner
Release Price: $1000 for 0.75cl
Drink Date: 2027 - 2060
The Giacomo Conterno 2014 Barolo Riserva Monfortino is made with 100% fruit from the Francia cru, which is not the case for the 2015 vintage (that sees 22% Arione in the blend) or likely future vintages. In a sense, this 100-point wine represents a milestone or a chapter finale in the long and exciting trajectory of Italy's collected and revered Monfortino. I've had the great fortune of tasting this wine from barrel over the course of four years and twice again this summer during my visits to the Conterno estates (in Gattinara and in Monforte d'Alba). Roberto Conterno has long been referring to 2014 as "the vintage of his heart." There had been challenging rain during the summer, but by the end of August, Roberto knew that a window of warm and dry weather could make 2014 "the vintage of the century," he tells me. On cue, the skies opened, and the sun came shining through in September and lasted through harvest in the second half of October. As a result, this was a very long growing season and that is something the Nebbiolo grape loves most. You taste this in the tannic quality of the wine that is long, silky, elegant and firm. That quality texture and structure will carry this bottle over a half century of bottling aging, or more. From an analytical point of view, this 2014 vintage is the most tannic Monfortino made in 30 years, but you'd hardly know it thanks to the smooth integration displayed here. The wine's bouquet is nuanced and fine with redcurrant, mint, blood orange, toasted aniseed, baked clay and tarry smoke. Initially, you get a savory touch of succulent grilled meat that adds to the "chewy" quality of the wine that Roberto Conterno often attributes to his favorite vintages of Monfortino. A note about corks: Extreme care is dedicated to quality control, and each of the 4,000 to 5,000 corks ordered for this wine are sniffed by human noses on team Conterno before making the cut.
We know Roberto Conterno of the Giacomo Conterno estate as one of Italy’s most talented Barolisti, a taciturn genius in the vineyard and cellar who is capable of casting out the inner soul from the Nebbiolo grape and trapping it for near-eternal safekeeping in a glass bottle. But the Roberto Conterno I met this summer had reinvented himself during the doldrums of lockdown, moving toward increasingly varied pursuits. Thanks to this total transformation, his many new identities today also make him an architect, a restaurateur, a stemware designer and the inventor of a futuristic army of robots on tank treads that will be dispatched at random throughout the Italian countryside and beyond. (Sorry folks, on this last point, I have been sworn to absolute secrecy, but I promise to say more when I can).
As I discovered this past July, there is indeed a lot of news to report from Piedmont. I visited both of Roberto’s estates, his new winery in Gattinara (Alto Piemonte) and his historic cellars in Monforte d’Alba (Barolo), to taste the 23 wines reviewed in this report. What I thought would be a quick tour became instead an epic foray into Mondo Conterno.
I left Nice, France, in early morning and drove past the flooded rice patties of Arborio to the beautiful town of Gattinara, which sits south of the Italian Alps and the Lake District west of the Sesia River. Roberto came to greet me and told me that just 24 hours earlier the area had suffered from a terrible summer hailstorm. He was still assessing damage to his Nebbiolo vines planted a short distance north of the winery on the nearby hillsides.
Roberto purchased the historic Nervi winery in 2018. (For more info on this acquisition, you can read my May 2018 article called "Italy, Piedmont: The Nebbiolo Whisperer – Roberto Conterno Buys Gattinara’s Nervi.") By buying the estate, with its 27 hectares of vines and a winery in the city center of Gattinara (with roots spanning back to the early 1900s), Roberto sent the ultimate vote of confidence in Nebbiolo-based wines made in the often-overlooked appellation of Gattinara.
The man credited with making some of Barolo’s greatest wines, and arguably its most collectable icon wine, Monfortino, had unexpectedly set up shop in Gattinara. It was a move driven purely by instinct and passion.
His first step was to design and construct a new, state-of-the-art winery. No expense was spared, and Roberto reproduced the breakthrough technology we can admire today at his home-base winery in Monforte d’Alba in Barolo. In addition to the modern fermentation area and aging cellars, some of the older cement tanks and facilities left over from the original Nervi winery were refurbished and kept in place.
Understanding that wine might not be enough to draw visitors to this undiscovered corner of Piedmont, Roberto converted the front offices of the old Nervi winery into a restaurant called Cucine Nervi. It serves regional dishes with a contemporary twist. A smooth wooden counter made with imported kauri wood from New Zealand surrounds an open kitchen where you can watch the talented chef Alberto Quadrio and his team at work. The restaurant wine list of course offers an enviable collection of Conterno Neri and Giacomo Conterno recent releases and back vintages.
Roberto had prepared a beautiful tasting for me in the glass-enclosed visitors’ room with views of the barrel fermentation area below. From the Conterno Nervi portfolio, I tasted the 2018, 2017 and 2016 vintages of his Gattinara, plus the 2018 and 2016 vintages of his two single-vineyard wines, Molsino and Valferana. These wines were not made in 2017, and fruit from these sites went into the classic Gattinara instead. I also tasted the Nebbiolo-based rosé as well as the rosé metodo classico sparkling wine.
“Gattinara beats Barolo three to one in the 2018 vintage,” he tells me. “Nebbiolo is crazy sensitive to place, and the 2018 vintage gave beautiful tannic structure here, making for complete wines.”
Following his presentation from Conterno Nervi, Roberto poured wines from his Barolo brand, Giacomo Conterno. I had previewed many of these wines over the past years during my annual barrel tastings, but this was my first opportunity to taste the finished products. The lineup included the 2019 Barbera Vigna Cerretta and the 2019 and 2018 vintages of Barbera d’Alba Vigna Francia.
In terms of Barolo, we sampled the 2017 and 2016 vintages of Barolo Cerretta, Barolo Arione and Barolo Francia. To conclude, he poured the 2014 and the 2015 Barolo Riserva Monfortino. Monfortino was not made in 2016 or 2017, and he hadn’t yet decided if he will make the wine in 2018.
“Barolo beats Gattinara in 2019; and in 2020, the two regions are about the same,” he says. “I love 2019 in Barolo. The season saw two full months of beautiful weather before harvest. The 2019 vintage made long-term wines with extra concentration and structure. The 2020 vintage has more obvious fruit and less structure compared to 2019.”
Roberto Conterno often takes conventional wisdom regarding a vintage and turns it on its head. He showed extreme confidence in the 2014 vintage, calling it “the vintage of the century”; meanwhile, it was largely panned by his peers because of summer rains and below average temperatures. That counterintuitive approach, which is part mischievous and part moxie, had him cheering for 2015 over the widely applauded 2016 vintage. Indeed, he had originally made one barrel of a possible 2016 Monfortino, but that wine ultimately went to his Barolo Francia instead.
The message delivered loud and clear this summer is that Roberto Conterno is especially excited about his 2019 Barolo wines now in barrel.
As a side gig, Roberto Conterno designs stemware. In 2017, he introduced his Sensory glass (which I use daily for all my professional tastings of reds and whites) with its extra wide balloon, soft tulip curve and short stem for better stability. This summer, I tasted sparkling wine from his newest glass, Symphony, introduced in 2021.
My last winery visit in Barolo before my flight back to Rome was with Roberto Conterno at Giacomo Conterno. This was my happy sendoff: Barrel tastings of Monfortino and an unforgettable sample of the 2010 Barolo Riserva Monfortino (a stunning 100-point wine) that reset my palate and stayed in my thoughts (and on my taste buds) for the entire length of my flight and transfer back home. With this final tasting completed, I knew I had experienced one of the finest groups of new releases ever (spanning from 2013 Barolo to 2010 Barolo Riserva)—not only from this celebrated estate but from the Barolo region as a whole. Roberto Conterno has a few more surprises up his sleeves. He is making Monfortino in 2013 and in 2014. In fact, he is only making Monfortino in those years. This is a huge endorsement for the controversial 2014 vintage in particular. He describes 2013 and 2014 as similar vintages that performed in opposite ways. The 2013 vintage was normal and warm during the height of summer but saw more cloud coverage and cooler temperatures in the fall. In 2014, the summer months were grey and soggy, but the fall period was warm and dry instead.
Here are my reviews of barrel samples tasted at the winery the last week of April. Among the samples is a new wine produced for the first time: the 2015 Barolo Arione, made with fruit from one of the estate's most high profile recent land acquisitions. Roberto Conterno will bottle all these wines on June 10th, just as we prepare to go to print. These wines will hit the market in October. When appropriate, I have given final scores to these wines, or a range of scores, accordingly. This year, I not only tasted new vintages, I got to taste from a new glass too. Roberto Conterno has designed new stemware called Sensory. With the help of his son who made 3-D computer designs from Roberto’s hand sketches, the Sensory glass offers these distinguishing factors: 1) The universal glass is used for both white and red wines; 2) The base of the balloon is almost flat, giving the wine a wider rest area at the bottom; 3) The side curve of the balloon is taller and wider, at a very open angle. This gives the wine more room to travel when you swirl the glass; and 4) The actual stem is on the short side, giving you the ideal distance between your fingers to hold the glass steady. My impression? Wow, this glass is to wine what high definition is to a television screen.
Two days before my scheduled annual tasting with Roberto Conterno, headlines in the Italian daily La Stampa broke the news that the maker of Monfortino had just purchased the 27-hectare Nervi property in the Gattinara appellation of Alto Piemonte. You can read more about this excellent chess move in the end-of-May interim issue, where I also review Nervi’s current vintages. Back in Monforte d’Alba, the soft-spoken Roberto Conterno hints at other big news to come. I asked if this might be new vineyard acquisitions in Barolo, but he wouldn’t say. But he did want to talk about (and taste) the treasures in his cellars. We can expect a lot of greatest to come from the Giacomo Conterno winery over the next few years. These are indeed exciting times for Roberto and his team. There are two vintages of precious Monfortino carefully evolving in botte: 2013 (to be released commercially in October of 2019) and the unexpected 2014. Monfortino was not made in the hot 2011 or 2012 vintages. It was last made in 2010 (I gave that vintage an enthusiastic 100 points). You may recall that bottle prices immediately climbed to nose-bleed heights, with some retailers reportedly selling their 2010 Barolo Riserva Monfortino for up to 1,200 euros a bottle. This caused a good amount of controversy and discussion within Italy, but it was seen as a milestone moment for many collectors outside of the country. I, for one, am happy to see that Italian wine can now reach the dizzying price heights of competitors in Bordeaux and Napa. Even though Monfortino will likely now and forever be priced beyond the means of most, I do think Roberto accomplished something very important with his stellar 2010 Monfortino that benefits Italian wine in the large scheme of things. One of the wines I tasted from botte this year is the 2015 Barolo Arione. Roberto asked me not to publish a review of this still non-existent wine, and for that reason, I will only report my impressions here without giving a score. Truthfully, it makes little sense to score this wine anyway since we are not yet sure where it will go. Will it be blended or will it stand alone? Roberto Conterno dropped more than a few hints that it could possibly end up in the 2015 Barolo Riserva Monfortino—if a 2015 Monfortino is made. As of this writing, no word has been given to either confirm or deny that Monfortino will be made in 2015. I want to be very careful with my wording because I appreciate how thoughtful and careful Roberto is when it comes to this iconic Barolo. The 2015 Arione fruit I tasted was in a closed phase, but it's very clear that the depth, power and potential is all there. So let's wait and see for now.
Published: Nov 30, 2021
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Vinous
100
Drinking Window
2026 - 2065
From: 2016 Barolo, Part 2 & Late Releases (Oct 2020)
The 2014 Barolo Riserva Monfortino is an epic wine, just as it always has been. Readers will surely be tempted to taste the 2014 now, but I would try to resist that, if possible. Usually, I recommend tasting young Monfortino upon release, when it has only been bottled for a few months and before it shuts down. Roberto Conterno gave the 2014 six years in cask (instead of seven), so the 2014 was bottled a year earlier, in the summer of 2019, which means it is now very much in the closed-down zone. Time in the glass brings out its inner sweetness and sensuality, but the 2014 is nowhere near as expressive today as it was from cask, or earlier this year when it was one of the highlights of a magnum vertical all the way back to 1970. The 2014 Monfortino is an epic, monumental wine in every way. Opening a bottle now, though, is not likely to be especially rewarding.
- By Antonio Galloni on October 2020
Roberto Conterno's 2016 Barolos offer fascinating insights into the personalities of three Serralunga crus, Cerretta before the center of town and then Francia and Arione, which are neighbors, on the other side of the village heading towards Monforte. One of the most intriguing aspects of the Conterno winery is that the wines don't always fall into the general beliefs about the overall quality of a given vintage. For example, in both 2014 and 2002, Conterno only bottled his flagship Barolo Monfortino - quite a statement in years that were so challenging elsewhere, but the wines clearly merited that treatment. (Readers with longer memories will remember the exceptional Monfortino of 1987). In 2016, Conterno decided against bottling Monfortino and has long maintained a view that for his wines, 2015 is superior to 2016. I suppose time will ultimately tell. The bottled 2016s are terrific, but they are also a bit more severe (specifically the Francia and Arione) than readers have come to expect in recent vintages. It will be interesting to see how the wines develop in bottle.
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Giacomo Conterno is an iconic Italian wine producer based in the Barolo wine region of Piedmont, Italy. The winery is known for its traditional winemaking practices and dedication to producing high-quality Barolo's.
History of Giacomo Conterno
The winery was founded in 1908 by Giacomo Conterno in the town of Monforte d'Alba, located in the heart of the Barolo wine region in Piedmont, Italy. In its early years, the winery focused on making wines from Nebbiolo, the main grape variety used in the production of Barolo. After the death of Giacomo Conterno in 1930, his son Giovanni Conterno took over the estate. Giovanni continued the family tradition of producing high quality Barolo's. An important milestone for the winery was the acquisition of the Cascina Francia vineyard in the 1970s. Located in the municipality of Serralunga d'Alba, this vineyard became an important source for some of Giacomo Conterno's most prestigious wines. In the 1980s, a divorce occurred within the Conterno family, leading to the creation of two separate wineries, Giacomo Conterno and Aldo Conterno. Aldo, Giovanni's brother, subsequently founded his own successful winery.
Giacomo Conterno, under the leadership of Giovanni's son Roberto Conterno, continued the family's focus on traditional winemaking methods.
Production by Giacomo Conterno
Giacomo Conterno is often associated with the traditional style of Barolo production. Traditional Barolo is characterized by longer maceration periods and aging in large Slavonian oak barrels. These practices contribute to wines with complex flavors, firm tannins and excellent aging potential. It also has to do with the specific vineyards of the winery. The winery is located in the municipality of Monforte d'Alba, one of the most important areas within Barolo. Giacomo Conterno's specific vineyards include some of the best crus (individual vineyards) in the region, including the famous Cascina Francia vineyard. The estate's dedication to specific vineyards emphasizes the importance of terroir in the production of their wines. The Cascina Francia vineyard is also particularly important to Giacomo Conterno. The wines produced from this vineyard are highly sought after for their depth, structure and aging potential. Cascina Francia has been a major source for some of the estate's most prestigious Barolo wines.
Philosophy of Giacomo Conterno
Giacomo Conterno is known for his minimalist and traditional winemaking approach. The winery typically uses long maceration periods, maturation in large Slavonian oak barrels for an extended period and minimal intervention to allow the wines to express the characteristics of the terroir. Giacomo Conterno's wines are highly regarded among collectors and enthusiasts for their complexity and ability to showcase the unique characteristics of the region. The estate has played a major role in shaping Barolo's reputation as one of Italy's finest wine regions.
Giacomo Conterno is a prestigious winery in the Piedmont region of Italy, known for producing some of the world's finest Barolo wines. Giacomo Conterno's history and production methods are rich in tradition and have played an important role in establishing Barolo's reputation as a wine of the highest level. The winery was founded by Giacomo Conterno in 1908. He started a small osteria (tavern) in the town of Monforte d'Alba, where he made and served his own wine. In 1920, Giacomo's son, Giovanni Conterno, produced the first vintage of Barolo Monfortino. This wine is named after the village and has since become one of the most celebrated Barolos. In 1934, Giovanni Conterno takes over the winery and begins to refine and perfect the production methods. He focused on producing high-quality, age-worthy Barolo. The Conterno family bought the Cascina Francia vineyard in Serralunga d'Alba in 1961. This vineyard is particularly important because it produces grapes for two of their most renowned wines: Barolo Cascina Francia and Barolo Monfortino. Giacomo Conterno adheres to traditional winemaking techniques, including long macerations and aging in large Slovenian oak barrels. This method preserves the integrity and complexity of the Nebbiolo. The winemaking process focuses on minimal intervention to allow the terroir to be fully expressed in the wine.
The Giacomo Conterno 2014 Barolo Riserva Monfortino is made with 100% fruit of the Francia cru, which is not the case for the 2015 vintage (where there is 22% Arione in the blend) or likely future vintages. In a sense, this 100-point (RP) wine represents a milestone or chapter finale in the long and exciting journey of Italy's collected and respected Monfortino. Roberto Conterno has long called 2014 'the vintage of his heart'. There was challenging rain in the summer, but by the end of August Roberto knew that a spell of warm and dry weather could make 2014 "the vintage of the century," he tells me. At the right time, the heavens opened and the sun shone in September and continued through the harvest in the second half of October. This made this a very long growing season and that is something the Nebbiolo grape likes most. You can taste this in the tannin quality of the wine, which is long, silky soft, elegant and firm. That high-quality texture and structure will carry this bottle through more than half a century of bottling aging, or more.
| Block Bundle Options | No |
|---|---|
| Type of Wine | Red |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Piemonte |
| Appellation | Barolo |
| Icons | Icon Italy |
| Winery | Giacomo Conterno |
| Grape | Nebbiolo |
| Biological certified | No |
| Natural wine | No |
| Vegan | No |
| Vintage | 2014 |
| Drinking as of | 2025 |
| Drinking till | 2060 |
| Alcohol % | 14.5 |
| Alcohol free/low | No |
| Content | 1.5 ltr |
| Oak aging | Yes |
| Sparkling | No |
| Dessert wine | No |
| Closure | Cork |
| Parker rating | 100 |
| Vinous rating | 100 |
| Tasting Profiles | Earthy, Rustic, Complex, Dry, Aged on wood, Powerful, Mineral, Red fruit, Tannines |
| Drink moments | Indruk maken, Lekker luxe |
Parker
The Wine Advocate
RP 100
Reviewed by: Monica Larner
Release Price: $1000 for 0.75cl
Drink Date: 2027 - 2060
The Giacomo Conterno 2014 Barolo Riserva Monfortino is made with 100% fruit from the Francia cru, which is not the case for the 2015 vintage (that sees 22% Arione in the blend) or likely future vintages. In a sense, this 100-point wine represents a milestone or a chapter finale in the long and exciting trajectory of Italy's collected and revered Monfortino. I've had the great fortune of tasting this wine from barrel over the course of four years and twice again this summer during my visits to the Conterno estates (in Gattinara and in Monforte d'Alba). Roberto Conterno has long been referring to 2014 as "the vintage of his heart." There had been challenging rain during the summer, but by the end of August, Roberto knew that a window of warm and dry weather could make 2014 "the vintage of the century," he tells me. On cue, the skies opened, and the sun came shining through in September and lasted through harvest in the second half of October. As a result, this was a very long growing season and that is something the Nebbiolo grape loves most. You taste this in the tannic quality of the wine that is long, silky, elegant and firm. That quality texture and structure will carry this bottle over a half century of bottling aging, or more. From an analytical point of view, this 2014 vintage is the most tannic Monfortino made in 30 years, but you'd hardly know it thanks to the smooth integration displayed here. The wine's bouquet is nuanced and fine with redcurrant, mint, blood orange, toasted aniseed, baked clay and tarry smoke. Initially, you get a savory touch of succulent grilled meat that adds to the "chewy" quality of the wine that Roberto Conterno often attributes to his favorite vintages of Monfortino. A note about corks: Extreme care is dedicated to quality control, and each of the 4,000 to 5,000 corks ordered for this wine are sniffed by human noses on team Conterno before making the cut.
We know Roberto Conterno of the Giacomo Conterno estate as one of Italy’s most talented Barolisti, a taciturn genius in the vineyard and cellar who is capable of casting out the inner soul from the Nebbiolo grape and trapping it for near-eternal safekeeping in a glass bottle. But the Roberto Conterno I met this summer had reinvented himself during the doldrums of lockdown, moving toward increasingly varied pursuits. Thanks to this total transformation, his many new identities today also make him an architect, a restaurateur, a stemware designer and the inventor of a futuristic army of robots on tank treads that will be dispatched at random throughout the Italian countryside and beyond. (Sorry folks, on this last point, I have been sworn to absolute secrecy, but I promise to say more when I can).
As I discovered this past July, there is indeed a lot of news to report from Piedmont. I visited both of Roberto’s estates, his new winery in Gattinara (Alto Piemonte) and his historic cellars in Monforte d’Alba (Barolo), to taste the 23 wines reviewed in this report. What I thought would be a quick tour became instead an epic foray into Mondo Conterno.
I left Nice, France, in early morning and drove past the flooded rice patties of Arborio to the beautiful town of Gattinara, which sits south of the Italian Alps and the Lake District west of the Sesia River. Roberto came to greet me and told me that just 24 hours earlier the area had suffered from a terrible summer hailstorm. He was still assessing damage to his Nebbiolo vines planted a short distance north of the winery on the nearby hillsides.
Roberto purchased the historic Nervi winery in 2018. (For more info on this acquisition, you can read my May 2018 article called "Italy, Piedmont: The Nebbiolo Whisperer – Roberto Conterno Buys Gattinara’s Nervi.") By buying the estate, with its 27 hectares of vines and a winery in the city center of Gattinara (with roots spanning back to the early 1900s), Roberto sent the ultimate vote of confidence in Nebbiolo-based wines made in the often-overlooked appellation of Gattinara.
The man credited with making some of Barolo’s greatest wines, and arguably its most collectable icon wine, Monfortino, had unexpectedly set up shop in Gattinara. It was a move driven purely by instinct and passion.
His first step was to design and construct a new, state-of-the-art winery. No expense was spared, and Roberto reproduced the breakthrough technology we can admire today at his home-base winery in Monforte d’Alba in Barolo. In addition to the modern fermentation area and aging cellars, some of the older cement tanks and facilities left over from the original Nervi winery were refurbished and kept in place.
Understanding that wine might not be enough to draw visitors to this undiscovered corner of Piedmont, Roberto converted the front offices of the old Nervi winery into a restaurant called Cucine Nervi. It serves regional dishes with a contemporary twist. A smooth wooden counter made with imported kauri wood from New Zealand surrounds an open kitchen where you can watch the talented chef Alberto Quadrio and his team at work. The restaurant wine list of course offers an enviable collection of Conterno Neri and Giacomo Conterno recent releases and back vintages.
Roberto had prepared a beautiful tasting for me in the glass-enclosed visitors’ room with views of the barrel fermentation area below. From the Conterno Nervi portfolio, I tasted the 2018, 2017 and 2016 vintages of his Gattinara, plus the 2018 and 2016 vintages of his two single-vineyard wines, Molsino and Valferana. These wines were not made in 2017, and fruit from these sites went into the classic Gattinara instead. I also tasted the Nebbiolo-based rosé as well as the rosé metodo classico sparkling wine.
“Gattinara beats Barolo three to one in the 2018 vintage,” he tells me. “Nebbiolo is crazy sensitive to place, and the 2018 vintage gave beautiful tannic structure here, making for complete wines.”
Following his presentation from Conterno Nervi, Roberto poured wines from his Barolo brand, Giacomo Conterno. I had previewed many of these wines over the past years during my annual barrel tastings, but this was my first opportunity to taste the finished products. The lineup included the 2019 Barbera Vigna Cerretta and the 2019 and 2018 vintages of Barbera d’Alba Vigna Francia.
In terms of Barolo, we sampled the 2017 and 2016 vintages of Barolo Cerretta, Barolo Arione and Barolo Francia. To conclude, he poured the 2014 and the 2015 Barolo Riserva Monfortino. Monfortino was not made in 2016 or 2017, and he hadn’t yet decided if he will make the wine in 2018.
“Barolo beats Gattinara in 2019; and in 2020, the two regions are about the same,” he says. “I love 2019 in Barolo. The season saw two full months of beautiful weather before harvest. The 2019 vintage made long-term wines with extra concentration and structure. The 2020 vintage has more obvious fruit and less structure compared to 2019.”
Roberto Conterno often takes conventional wisdom regarding a vintage and turns it on its head. He showed extreme confidence in the 2014 vintage, calling it “the vintage of the century”; meanwhile, it was largely panned by his peers because of summer rains and below average temperatures. That counterintuitive approach, which is part mischievous and part moxie, had him cheering for 2015 over the widely applauded 2016 vintage. Indeed, he had originally made one barrel of a possible 2016 Monfortino, but that wine ultimately went to his Barolo Francia instead.
The message delivered loud and clear this summer is that Roberto Conterno is especially excited about his 2019 Barolo wines now in barrel.
As a side gig, Roberto Conterno designs stemware. In 2017, he introduced his Sensory glass (which I use daily for all my professional tastings of reds and whites) with its extra wide balloon, soft tulip curve and short stem for better stability. This summer, I tasted sparkling wine from his newest glass, Symphony, introduced in 2021.
My last winery visit in Barolo before my flight back to Rome was with Roberto Conterno at Giacomo Conterno. This was my happy sendoff: Barrel tastings of Monfortino and an unforgettable sample of the 2010 Barolo Riserva Monfortino (a stunning 100-point wine) that reset my palate and stayed in my thoughts (and on my taste buds) for the entire length of my flight and transfer back home. With this final tasting completed, I knew I had experienced one of the finest groups of new releases ever (spanning from 2013 Barolo to 2010 Barolo Riserva)—not only from this celebrated estate but from the Barolo region as a whole. Roberto Conterno has a few more surprises up his sleeves. He is making Monfortino in 2013 and in 2014. In fact, he is only making Monfortino in those years. This is a huge endorsement for the controversial 2014 vintage in particular. He describes 2013 and 2014 as similar vintages that performed in opposite ways. The 2013 vintage was normal and warm during the height of summer but saw more cloud coverage and cooler temperatures in the fall. In 2014, the summer months were grey and soggy, but the fall period was warm and dry instead.
Here are my reviews of barrel samples tasted at the winery the last week of April. Among the samples is a new wine produced for the first time: the 2015 Barolo Arione, made with fruit from one of the estate's most high profile recent land acquisitions. Roberto Conterno will bottle all these wines on June 10th, just as we prepare to go to print. These wines will hit the market in October. When appropriate, I have given final scores to these wines, or a range of scores, accordingly. This year, I not only tasted new vintages, I got to taste from a new glass too. Roberto Conterno has designed new stemware called Sensory. With the help of his son who made 3-D computer designs from Roberto’s hand sketches, the Sensory glass offers these distinguishing factors: 1) The universal glass is used for both white and red wines; 2) The base of the balloon is almost flat, giving the wine a wider rest area at the bottom; 3) The side curve of the balloon is taller and wider, at a very open angle. This gives the wine more room to travel when you swirl the glass; and 4) The actual stem is on the short side, giving you the ideal distance between your fingers to hold the glass steady. My impression? Wow, this glass is to wine what high definition is to a television screen.
Two days before my scheduled annual tasting with Roberto Conterno, headlines in the Italian daily La Stampa broke the news that the maker of Monfortino had just purchased the 27-hectare Nervi property in the Gattinara appellation of Alto Piemonte. You can read more about this excellent chess move in the end-of-May interim issue, where I also review Nervi’s current vintages. Back in Monforte d’Alba, the soft-spoken Roberto Conterno hints at other big news to come. I asked if this might be new vineyard acquisitions in Barolo, but he wouldn’t say. But he did want to talk about (and taste) the treasures in his cellars. We can expect a lot of greatest to come from the Giacomo Conterno winery over the next few years. These are indeed exciting times for Roberto and his team. There are two vintages of precious Monfortino carefully evolving in botte: 2013 (to be released commercially in October of 2019) and the unexpected 2014. Monfortino was not made in the hot 2011 or 2012 vintages. It was last made in 2010 (I gave that vintage an enthusiastic 100 points). You may recall that bottle prices immediately climbed to nose-bleed heights, with some retailers reportedly selling their 2010 Barolo Riserva Monfortino for up to 1,200 euros a bottle. This caused a good amount of controversy and discussion within Italy, but it was seen as a milestone moment for many collectors outside of the country. I, for one, am happy to see that Italian wine can now reach the dizzying price heights of competitors in Bordeaux and Napa. Even though Monfortino will likely now and forever be priced beyond the means of most, I do think Roberto accomplished something very important with his stellar 2010 Monfortino that benefits Italian wine in the large scheme of things. One of the wines I tasted from botte this year is the 2015 Barolo Arione. Roberto asked me not to publish a review of this still non-existent wine, and for that reason, I will only report my impressions here without giving a score. Truthfully, it makes little sense to score this wine anyway since we are not yet sure where it will go. Will it be blended or will it stand alone? Roberto Conterno dropped more than a few hints that it could possibly end up in the 2015 Barolo Riserva Monfortino—if a 2015 Monfortino is made. As of this writing, no word has been given to either confirm or deny that Monfortino will be made in 2015. I want to be very careful with my wording because I appreciate how thoughtful and careful Roberto is when it comes to this iconic Barolo. The 2015 Arione fruit I tasted was in a closed phase, but it's very clear that the depth, power and potential is all there. So let's wait and see for now.
Published: Nov 30, 2021
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Vinous
100
Drinking Window
2026 - 2065
From: 2016 Barolo, Part 2 & Late Releases (Oct 2020)
The 2014 Barolo Riserva Monfortino is an epic wine, just as it always has been. Readers will surely be tempted to taste the 2014 now, but I would try to resist that, if possible. Usually, I recommend tasting young Monfortino upon release, when it has only been bottled for a few months and before it shuts down. Roberto Conterno gave the 2014 six years in cask (instead of seven), so the 2014 was bottled a year earlier, in the summer of 2019, which means it is now very much in the closed-down zone. Time in the glass brings out its inner sweetness and sensuality, but the 2014 is nowhere near as expressive today as it was from cask, or earlier this year when it was one of the highlights of a magnum vertical all the way back to 1970. The 2014 Monfortino is an epic, monumental wine in every way. Opening a bottle now, though, is not likely to be especially rewarding.
- By Antonio Galloni on October 2020
Roberto Conterno's 2016 Barolos offer fascinating insights into the personalities of three Serralunga crus, Cerretta before the center of town and then Francia and Arione, which are neighbors, on the other side of the village heading towards Monforte. One of the most intriguing aspects of the Conterno winery is that the wines don't always fall into the general beliefs about the overall quality of a given vintage. For example, in both 2014 and 2002, Conterno only bottled his flagship Barolo Monfortino - quite a statement in years that were so challenging elsewhere, but the wines clearly merited that treatment. (Readers with longer memories will remember the exceptional Monfortino of 1987). In 2016, Conterno decided against bottling Monfortino and has long maintained a view that for his wines, 2015 is superior to 2016. I suppose time will ultimately tell. The bottled 2016s are terrific, but they are also a bit more severe (specifically the Francia and Arione) than readers have come to expect in recent vintages. It will be interesting to see how the wines develop in bottle.
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Giacomo Conterno is an iconic Italian wine producer based in the Barolo wine region of Piedmont, Italy. The winery is known for its traditional winemaking practices and dedication to producing high-quality Barolo's.
History of Giacomo Conterno
The winery was founded in 1908 by Giacomo Conterno in the town of Monforte d'Alba, located in the heart of the Barolo wine region in Piedmont, Italy. In its early years, the winery focused on making wines from Nebbiolo, the main grape variety used in the production of Barolo. After the death of Giacomo Conterno in 1930, his son Giovanni Conterno took over the estate. Giovanni continued the family tradition of producing high quality Barolo's. An important milestone for the winery was the acquisition of the Cascina Francia vineyard in the 1970s. Located in the municipality of Serralunga d'Alba, this vineyard became an important source for some of Giacomo Conterno's most prestigious wines. In the 1980s, a divorce occurred within the Conterno family, leading to the creation of two separate wineries, Giacomo Conterno and Aldo Conterno. Aldo, Giovanni's brother, subsequently founded his own successful winery.
Giacomo Conterno, under the leadership of Giovanni's son Roberto Conterno, continued the family's focus on traditional winemaking methods.
Production by Giacomo Conterno
Giacomo Conterno is often associated with the traditional style of Barolo production. Traditional Barolo is characterized by longer maceration periods and aging in large Slavonian oak barrels. These practices contribute to wines with complex flavors, firm tannins and excellent aging potential. It also has to do with the specific vineyards of the winery. The winery is located in the municipality of Monforte d'Alba, one of the most important areas within Barolo. Giacomo Conterno's specific vineyards include some of the best crus (individual vineyards) in the region, including the famous Cascina Francia vineyard. The estate's dedication to specific vineyards emphasizes the importance of terroir in the production of their wines. The Cascina Francia vineyard is also particularly important to Giacomo Conterno. The wines produced from this vineyard are highly sought after for their depth, structure and aging potential. Cascina Francia has been a major source for some of the estate's most prestigious Barolo wines.
Philosophy of Giacomo Conterno
Giacomo Conterno is known for his minimalist and traditional winemaking approach. The winery typically uses long maceration periods, maturation in large Slavonian oak barrels for an extended period and minimal intervention to allow the wines to express the characteristics of the terroir. Giacomo Conterno's wines are highly regarded among collectors and enthusiasts for their complexity and ability to showcase the unique characteristics of the region. The estate has played a major role in shaping Barolo's reputation as one of Italy's finest wine regions.
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