My experiences with Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino

"The Barolos of Giacomo Conterno are among the most beautiful wines in the world: gorgeously pure and packed with flavors that feel almost three dimensional" -- Eric Asimov, New York Times.
"The estate is most renowned for the great Barolos Cascina Francia and Monfortino Reserve. The latter ... is regarded as one of the finest Barolos produced today and by many as the finest wine made from Nebbiolo in the world" -- Berry Bros & Rudd.

Ron, Bev, Parlo, and I visited with Roberto at the estate in 2017. In this post I revisit the learnings from that trip and remark on selected vintages of Monfortino that I have tasted through the years.

Prior to World War I, Barolo was made to be drunk early and was sold in casks and demijohns. Giovanni Conterno purchased high-quality fruit from Serralunga d'Alba growers and made wine to be sold in his restaurant and to the general public. After son Giacomo returned from the war, he worked with his father to make an untraditional Barolo, one with significant aging potential. The formula that they hit upon -- extending the maceration time and aging in large wooden botti -- met early success and continues as the foundation of "the finest wine made from Nebbiolo in the world." The history of the estate from those early days on is captured in the chart below.

The fruit for the estate's flagship Monfortino is sourced from the 14-ha Serralunga d'Alba cru Francia; as is the case for the Barolo Francia (previously Cascina Francia). Five of the crus hectares are planted to Barbera with the remainder Nebbiolo. Both a Barolo (2 ha) and a Barbera (1 ha) are produced from Cerretta fruit. The recently purchased Arione vineyard (6 ha) has just been replanted with Nebbiolo. According to Roberto, all three crus have limestone soils and similar climates. The details of the fruit sources are shown below.

Monfortino is made from the best grapes in the greatest year and that search begins in the vineyard with selection and vinification of "proto-Monfortino" and Francia wines. The proto-Monfortino wines are subjected to higher fermentation temperatures and longer maceration time (4 to 5 weeks versus 3 to 4 weeks for the Francia) in search of greater structure (They are also aged for three additional years). A decision is made after tasting as to whether there will be a Monfortino that year. According to Roberto, "Francia you drink, Monfortino you chew." He tastes each wine 15 times a year and would have tasted the wines 40 to 50 times before making a decision. If the decision is made to not produce a Monfortino, the proto-Monfortino is plowed back into that year's Francia.

In terms of an overall winemaking process, everything is destemmed and the grapes vinified by plots. Fermentation is conducted in wooden conical oak vats (They had started out with wood, then switched to stainless steel. Twenty years ago they began using wood again.). He loves wood for fermentation because the thick staves keep the temperature well and, in his view, allow better polymerization.

Today they work with selected yeasts from their vineyard, determined after a lengthy research process. They are currently using two strains for Nebbiolo and three for Barbera.

All wines are aged in botti: 55-year-old Slavonian oak or newer Austrian oak barrels from Franz Stockinger. The Barbera is aged for 2 years, the Barolo for 4 years, and the Monfortino for 7 years. The wines are racked three times in the first year, first to get rid of the gross lees prior to malolactic, and the second and third for clarity. Beyond that, racking is based on taste (combating reduction and tannin).

Steel tanks are used when racking the wines or bottling. In no case is the wine held for more than 1 day in steel tanks.

Tasting Selected Vintages of Monfortino

Below I revisit some of the Monfortino vintages which I have had the pleasure of tasting, beginning with the youngest and working backwards. Most of these wines were tasted alongside my buddy Ron Siegel and, in a number of cases, his tasting notes are used (and noted as such).

2008 Monfortino -- Killing a baby. Showing power and finesse. Structured and elegant style that will need a lot more time (Ron's notes).

2002 and 2006 Monfortino -- Popped and poured the 2002. Should have given it more of a decant. Huge structure. Showing great power and length with lots of cherry, licorice, dried herbs, leather, tar, and rose petals. Second tasting, also popped and poured (thats what we do). Still structured, with a perfumed nose of dark fruits, menthol, tar, licorice, and tobacco (Ron's notes).

The 2006 was a beautiful vintage that was all about power and finesse. Showing great balance and structure. Notes of dark fruits, balsamic, licorice, tar, and rose petal (Ron's notes).

2000 and 2001 Monfortino -- The 2000 is aromatic with notes of violets and red cherries. Traditional Barolo notes of tar, licorice, spice, and balsamic are also evident. Concentrated. Balanced. Lengthy finish.

The 2001 shows classic Barolo notes of rose petals, tar, mint, and licorice accompanying cherry, cedar, spice and balsamic aromas. Concentrated, full-bodied, and balanced with silky tannins. Long finish.

1995 and 1999 Monfortino -- Roses, dark cherries, tar, herbs, and spices on the nose of the 1995. Dark fruit, minerality, and spice, along with a brisk acidity, on the palate. Lengthy finish.

The 1999 was licorice-forward with accompanying notes of black cherry, roses, tar, mint, earth, and blackpepper. Dark red and black fruit and balsamic flavors on the palate. Balanced, with integrated tannins.

1998 Monfortino -- Intense licorice along with tar, roses, dark berries, tobacco, mint, and spice. Sour cherry flavor on the palate. Concentrated and full-bodied. Integrated tannins and a full, long finish.

1982 Monfortino -- Dried red fruits, sour cherry, balsamic, rose petal, camphor, and saddle leather. Very sweet on the palate and coats the tongue with polished tannins. Nice acidity. Very nice vintage for Monfortino (Ron's notes).

1937 Conterno Barolo Riserva -- Tasted January, 2017. One of the most interesting aromatics that I have experienced this year. Notes of balsamic, pine tar, leather, orange peel, sweet brown fruits, and baking spices. Amazing complexity on the palate along with good acidity (Ron's notes).

Arguably the best wine coming out of Piedmont, Monfortino rewards patience.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Brovia: The hunt for the Unio components

Attendees at the Saturday session of this year's La Festa del Barolo had the pleasure of listening to 14 leading Barolo producers discuss their handling of the difficult 2014 vintage. Alex Sánchez presented on Brovia and, one week after his talk, I was still confused as to the composition of Unio, the estate's sole Barolo offering from the 2014 vintage. Before I detail the points of confusion, let me provide some background on the estate.

Brovia was founded in Castiglione Falletto in 1863 by Giacinto Brovia and wine was produced continuously until the depradations of Phylloxera and two World Wars curtailed activity. Giacinto and Raffaele restarted operations in 1953. Today the business is managed by Giacinto's daughters (Cristina and Elena) and Elena's husband Alex Sánchez.

The estate farms 19.2 ha across the Langhe with 55% of the land devoted to Barolo, 25% to Dolcetto, 10% to Barbera, and 10% to Arneis, Nebbiolo d'Alba, and Freisa. The estate produces five Barolo wines (four cru and a Normale constructed from the youngest vines in the cru vineyards). The sources for the Barolo fruit are shown in the chart below.

In terms of vineyard practices, the estate is farmed organically (no certification) and yield is carefully managed through pruning and cluster-thinning. Soils are analyzed every two years to ensure imbalances have not crept in.

Barolo wines are vinified classically with fermentation periods of 30+ days and aging of at least  years in 30 hL Slavonian and French oak barrels. After bottling (sans filtration), the wine spends 18 - 24 months in bottle prior to release on the market.

Now back to Unio.

The 2014 harvest was difficult for Barolo producers (as I related in my post on the topic). In recounting Brovia's response, I reported that they had created Unio as a blend of their 5 Barolo wines. I had misheard Alex, but as I researched the topic further, I realized that there was a total lack of clarity as to exactly what are the components of Unio.

There are some areas of certainty:

• Growing conditions were terrible
• The Suzuki fly exacerbated an already bad situation
• The family tasted through all of their Barolo lots and decided to sell off 50% of the wine in bulk and make a single wine -- Unio -- from the wines held back.

The confusion comes as to which crus made it into Unio.  Alex is not disposed to reveal that information for fear of disadvantaging some crus vis a vis others in the future.

According to Manuel Burgi, a fellow Barolo lover and attendee at La Festa del Barolo, two crus are included in Unio and he cites as proof a conversation he had with Alex at La Festa and a Producer Comment from Antoni Galloni's Vinous.  According to the Commentary, "The 2014 is a blend of two parcels but the Brovia's prefer not to disclose which two in order not to penalize the image of the other two vineyards for the future."

Ross Morrison, another Barolo lover, contributed that during his visit to Brovia, he was told that Unio was a blend of three crus.

And the hunt was on. I checked on Cellar Tracker and found three users with differing descriptions of the wine components. One of these tasters stated that it was a blend of 4 crus.

Wine Library stated that the wine was made from selected parcels in two cru vineyards and a small amount of their Normale Barolo.  This does not compute as the Normale is drawn from the four cru vineyards.

Manuel, on further research, turned up a piece by Rosenthal Wine Merchants (Brovia's distributor) which stipulated that the wine was made with fruit drawn from the lower sections of the Brea vineyard plus portions from two other crus (Manuel was able to subsequently confirm this with Elena Brovia.).

So that was one question answered. The remaining question was which of the crus was left out of the blend. As I look at the chart above, I see that Villero has the most clay of the soils and, as such, would be the most subject to water retention. This observation is borne out by a statement on baroli.it: "The Villero ... soil, characterized by very low permeability, retains a lot of water, allowing the grapes to maintain a high level of quality even in the driest seasons... "

My thought is that this feature became a bug in 2014, causing the Villero wines to be very dilute and thus kept out of the blend.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Bruno Giacosa's Falletto di Serralunga: A tasting of selected vintages (La Pizza Fresca, NYC)

The announcement of Bruno Giacosa's death hit higher on the scale for me as I had attended a tasting of selected Giacosa wines at La Pizza Fresca just two weeks prior. That tasting, led by Levi Dalton of I'll Drink to That fame, covered four instances of each of his Falletto MGA Barolo offerings. The wines, and the accompanying dishes, are shown below. A description of the terroir precedes the discussion of the tasting.

Falletto
The MGA is illustrated in strawberry in the figure below. The Le Rocche del Falletto portion is shown as a golden wedge to the north.

Giacosa made his wines with purchased fruit until he bought the "majestic" Falletto vineyard in 1982. This vineyard, it is widely agreed, became the source of one of his greatest Barolos. The Giacosa formula for great vineyards is: (i) high hill country positioning, (ii) south to southwest sun exposure, and (iii) amphitheatre-like vineyards; Falletto fits this profile almost perfectly.

The Giacosa wines from this vineyard are labeled Falletto (white label) and Rocche del Falletto (from four south-facing plots on the upper slopes of the vineyard. The Rocche del Falletto plots support the crus oldest vines (35+ years) grown in clay and calcareous soils.

The Riservas spend an additional 6 months in wood -- and an additional year in bottle -- over the white labels.

Vintage Conditions
The table below shows the vintage conditions for each of the years from which wines were drawn for the tasting.

Vintage	Falletto	Le Rocche del Falletto	Le Rocche del Falletto Riserva	Vintage Conditions (as per Jancis Robinson)
1998	X	X		More structure and potential than 1997; some very fine elegant wines
1999		X		Very good quality. Voluptuous Barolo and Barbaresco; recalls 1997
2000	X		X	Very good partly thanks to a heatwave from mid-August to mid-September. Nebbiolo exceptional with excellent acidity, ripeness, and great flavor definition. For the long term
2001	X		X	Excellent quality from an early vintage. In the mold of 1999 and 1997 rather than for the long term. No shortage of ripeness or structure; an occasional shortage of acidity
2003		X		Heatwave vintage. Oldest vines managed to withstand the weather and yield some exceptional wines
2004	X		X	Well-balanced wines
2005		X		Reduced crop of decent but unremarkable wines for medium-term drinking
2007			X	Low-yielding year but good quality fruit

The Tasting
After the appropriate amount of social banter, Brad (proprietor of La Pizza Fresca) called us to order. In his opening remarks he mentioned that this tasting had been in the works for several years and that Bruna (Bruno's daughter) could not come due to her father's ill health and her responsibilities. The tasting, however, had Bruna's blessing. He then turned the floor over to Levi Dalton.

Levi then gave attendees a lecture (in the positive sense) on the history of Bruno Giacosa and the Falletto vineyard (he also gave credit to Ken Vastola for being the repository of a lot of the information that he was providing).

Brad and his Nixonian move as MD Savino asks
"What am I doing here?"

Levi asking attendees to go light on him prior
to the start of the event

Paul Tocci (R) thinking about DRC

There were no dogs in the Falletto flight. The 1998 showed violets, florality, red fruits, and baking spices on the nose. Rich, sour finish. Levi said this was a vintage wherein one can find accessibility. He liked it. The 2000 showed spice, red fruit, earth, mushrooms, and a savoriness. Red fruit on the palate. Great weight. Elegant, clean finish. The 2001 had licorice, tobacco, smoke, and sweet red fruit on the nose. Leaner than the preceding wines. Medium-bodied. Red fruit and tar on palate. Lengthy finish. The 2004 showed tamarind, tar, blackberries, spice and a mineral note. Massive. Sour red fruit. Structured. Time is its best friend.

Carpaccio di Manzo

Agnolotti di Zucca

All of the wines in the Rocche del Falletto flight showed well. The 1998 showed tar, roses, strawberry, earth, and soy on the nose. Minerality, balance and a lengthy finish. The 1999 showed dark cherries, roses, tar, earth, and balsamic notes. Dark fruits on the palate preceding a lengthy finish. The 2003 belied its vintage. Ripe fruit, tar, and herbs on the nose but balanced. The 2005 showed dried rose petals tar, and licorice on the nose. Savory with drying tannins. Lengthy finish.

Pizza Margherita

A dark, rich power, along with lengthy finishes, seemed to be the hallmark of the Rocche del Falletto Riservas. In addition, the 2000 showed licorice, herbs, and mint on the nose and well integrated tannins on the palate. The 2001 showed sweet red fruit and an earthiness on the nose, the former of which was evident on the palate along with great texture and balance. The 2004 had similar nasal characteristics as the 2001 along with more traditional Barolo characteristics and herbs. The 2007 was redolent with cherry and tobacco notes.

This was a high-quality tasting both in terms of the wines on offer and the job done by Levi. Bruno Giacosa wines are legendary; and they are legendary for a reason. So there was no surprise there.

This was the first tasting that I had attended where Levi was honchoing and I was pleased. Levi has a self-deprecating personality -- both in terms of speech and mannerisms -- but that disappears once he is in front of an audience and begins to delve into this area which he is obviously passionate about. This was a terroir tasting as presented by Levi. While many presenters see wine dinners as an opportunity to say a few words between dishes, Levi expounded on the terroir of Falletto Bruno Giacosa, and the wines at great length. It was superlative.

Levi was ably assisted by Eric Guido (Morrell) who dutifully held up a map at one point during the tasting but, more importantly, tasted through all the wines prior to the start of the event to ensure that only quality bottles made it through.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Ceretto, Brovia, Roagna, Cordero di Montezemolo, and Poderi Colla: Barolos from Castiglione Falletto and Monforte

The Antonio Galloni celebration of Barolo is held annually in New York City and consists of (i) a gala dinner and (ii) a Masterclass tasting of 15 Barolos on the day after the dinner. This year's Masterclass was titled 2013 Barolo: Sublime Finesse and Elegance and featured 15 of the region's top producers discussing, in turn, their estate's 2013 vintage.

The wines were presented in flights and, to date, I have reported on the following: The Renaissance of Verduno and Monvigliero, The Art of the Blend, The Classicism of Brunate, The Emergence of Novello and Ravera, and the Nuances of Margheria. In this post I report on the first flight which featured 2013 Barolos from Ceretto, Brovia, Cordero di Montezemolo, and Poderi Colla and a 2012 Barolo from Roagna.

Antonio Galloni kicking off the Masterclass

This was the most atypical of the flights:

• Five wines versus two
• Set at the commune level (with the exception of the Barolo-blend flight, all flights were intra-cru comparisons)
• Four of the five wines were from Castiglione Falletto
• Each of the Castiglione Falletto wines was from a different MGA

The particulars of the flight are shown in the table below.

Commune	Producer	Wine	MGA	Vineyard	Winery Representative
Castiglione Falletto	Ceretto	Barolo Bricco Rocche	Bricco Rocche		Alessandro Ceretto
	Brovia	Barolo Rocche dei Brovia	Rocche di Castiglione		Alex Sánchez
	Roagna	Barolo Pira Vecche Viti	Pira		Luca Roagna
	Cordero di Montezemolo	Barolo Enrico VI	Villero		Alberto Cordero di Montezemolo
Monforte d’Alba	Poderi Colla	Barolo Bussia Dardi Le Rose	Bussia	Dardi Le Rose	Pietro Colla

I begin with a brief look at the wine-producing regions under consideration and will then examine the wines tasted.

Castiglione Falletto
"Even if the vineyard surface cultivated for the production of Barolo places it solely in sixth place among the townships, Castiglione Falletto, in terms of notoriety, certainly cannot be considered a township of secondary significance given that, not merely producers of great fame but also, and above all, vineyards of exceptional prestige, can be numbered within its confines" (Masnaghetti). Whew. That was a long sentence. But you get the point. Castiglione Falletto, as a commune, is highly regarded.

The map below shows the location of the Castiglione Falletto MGAs from which the wines included in this flight were drawn. Rocche di Castiglione and Villero were numbered among my 18 Greatest Barolo Vineyards and are described here. Information on Bricco Rocche and Pira follow.

Bricco Rocche
As per ceretto.com:

This Castiglione Falletto vineyard is the smallest geographic area within the Barolo specification and comprises just over 1 hectare. It is the most prestigious part of what was once called La Serra and is nestled between the Villero and the Rocche (rock face) of Castiglione, which represents the best of the top parts; it can be considered a monopole as the whole parcel is the exclusive property of the Ceretto family.

The height of the vineyard is optimum, going from 350 to 370 meters above sea level, with southeast to southwest exposure. The earth (sandstone of Diano) reinforce the ideal sense of balance, suggested by the geographic location, and see good percentages of sand, silt and clay. 

Pira
According to roagna.com:

Pira is ... exposed to the southeast, ... it derives from the disintegration of the Rocche di Castiglione. It is a GMA and property of our family since 1989, the year it was purchased. It has ... a unique soil and microclimate, as it is protected in the upper part by the Rocche di Castiglione and downstream from the woods with a stream coming from the Bussia di Monforte. The cultivated vines are Barbera, Chardonnay and mainly Nebbiolo, in which we can classify 6 different micro-plots according to the composition of the soil, which goes from the limestone rock of the Rocche to the bluish marl, and according to the age of the vines. 

Monforte
At 292.3 ha, Bussia is the second largest MGA in Monforte d'Alba (and the Barolo Zone as a whole), bested only by Bricco San Pietro which weighs in at a massive 380.09 ha. The various vineyards included in the Bussia MGA are shown on the map below.

Dardi

This is a 7-ha vineyard located in the hamlet of Dardi in Bussia Soprano. The best plots are located above the village. The topmost point of the vineyard is known as Mondoca. According to the winery website, this vineyard was the first to be vinified separately by Beppe Colla back in 1961, thus allowing him to place the cru name on the label.

The Wines
The available data on the physical characteristics of the individual vineyards and their viticulture and viniculture practices are presented in the table below followed by my perception of the resulting wines.

Characteristic	Ceretto Bricco Rocche	Brovia Rocche	Roagna Pira	Cordero di Montezemolo	Poderi Colla
Vineyard Size	1 ha from one source; 1.4 ha from another	1.5 ha	4.88 ha	2.2	8 ha (of which 6 planted to Nebbiolo
Elevation (m)	340 - 370m	350		300	300 - 350
Exposure	SE to SW	SE	SE	S	S and SW
Soil	Silty loam (Sandstone of Diano)	Lean, slightly sandy, loose calcareous soil	Layers of alternating white limestone, gray and blue marl, and sand with a high mineral content	Calcareous and micronutrient rich
Vine Training	Guyot
Vine Density (Vines/ha)	4248				4000 viness/ha
Yield				37hl/ha
Year Planted	1982		Oldest plants date back to 1937		1978 - 1985
Harvesting	Hand	Hand			Hand
Reception	Hand sort	Light pressing and separation of stalk	Immediately destemmed and crushed		Destemmed and crushed
Fermentation Vessels	Stainless Steel		Oak	SS
Yeasts	Native		Pre-fermentation pied de cuve
Fermentation Period		15 - 20 days	10 days; submerged-cap maceration for 70 - 90 days	6 - 10 day maceration, 10 -12 days fermentation	12 - 15 day maceration
Barrel Aging	12 mos 310 l oak barrels; moved to 25 Hl oak casks for remainder of elevage	2 years in 30 Hl Frenck oak casks	Aged in neutral oak for 5 years	20 months in barriques	Aged ionic casks for 24 - 28 months
Fining/Filtering		None	None
Bottle Aging		18 - 24 months

In his presentation, Alessandro Ceretto stated that the wines were fantastic from fermentation through aging. And that showed on the resultant 2013 Barolo Bricco Rocche. This wine was floral with violets and beautiful red fruit notes. The wine explodes on the palate with dried red fruit, rose petals, lovely acidity, great weight, and a long dry finish.

Alex Sánchez said that the 2013 Rocche del Brovia was very different on the nose than on the previous night. Elegant nose. Hint of tar, roses, and persimmon. On the palate sour persimmon, tar, and silky tannins. More intensity on the palate than was the case for the Ceretto. Long coating on palate. Bitter finish.

The 2013 Roagna 2012 Barolo Pira Vecchie Viti showed broad-based red fruit, shoe polish, and green flowers. Full round on the palate with drying fruit, dried rose petals, and silky tannins. Long, silky finish.

The 2013 Barolo Enrico VI showed hints of coconut, licorice, and dark fruit. Sweet fruit on the palate. Weighty with lengthy finish.

The 2013 Poderi Colla 2013 Barolo Bussia Dardi Le Rose was elegant with dried rose petals and bright red fruit on the nose. Power on the palate. Very different from the previous wines. Lenghty finish.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme