2004 Barolo Francia

Roberto Conterno made not one, but two of the wines of the vintage in 2004. These Barolos were utterly captivating in barrel and they just keep getting better in bottle. The 2004 Monfortino remains as it always has been; a model of finesse, while the Cascina Francia continues to put on weight. While both wines can be enjoyed today, they are also years away from peaking. Oddly enough, the Monfortino is more accessible than the Cascina Francia at this point in time. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for Roberto Conterno to make these wines, as his father, Giovanni Conterno, passed away in February that year. As for the wines, well, they are simply stellar. For more historical perspective and a look back at Monfortino, readers might enjoy notes from the London Monfortino Vertical.

The biggest news at Giacomo Conterno over the last few months has been the estate's recently completed acquisition of three hectares in the Cerretta vineyard in Serralunga. This is a significant development considering the winery's history. Few estates in Italy are so closely identified with one piece of land as Giacomo Conterno. When Conterno purchased the Cascina Francia vineyard (a monopole) in 1974 it was a wheat field, although vines had been planted there in the past. There are no known pre-Conterno wines from Cascina Francia. Once the estate began making wines from Cascina Francia (first vintage 1978) they focused all of their attention on that vineyard and ceased using purchased fruit. Given all of the change in Piedmont over the last thirty-plus years it is hard to believe, but Conterno never acquired another parcel - until now. There are two hectares of Nebbiolo and one of Barbera which will become new, separate bottlings. Roberto Conterno told me it will be two to three years before the vineyard responds to the work he is doing today. Unfortunately 2008 has been a challenging growing season characterized by abundant rain in the spring and summer, along with hail, which damaged a portion of the fruit, so total production from Cerretta is expected to be small. Still, it will be fascinating to see what Conterno comes up with from their new vineyards in Cerretta. As for the new releases, they are drop-dead gorgeous. While some of these wines are increasingly difficult to afford, at the end of the day it is hard to begrudge the commercial success of one of Italy's historic estates, which in many ways, has been a long time coming. The late Giovanni Conterno and his wife Yvonne made enormous sacrifices over the years. In 1974 they paid a princely sum for their Cascina Francia vineyard, then in the early 1980s they built their current winemaking facility, all while putting five children through school. Today Roberto Conterno makes wines that can hold their own with the very finest wines made anywhere in the world, and in that context theses Barolos remain fairly priced. This is an estate that has achieved its success the hard way, by earning it - not just over the years, but over the decades.

Roberto Conterno's 2002 Barolo Monfortino is a legend before its time, as the neighbors have been talking about it for years and the wine is still nowhere near being bottled. In this mostly dreadful vintage in which virtually no producers released single-vineyard wines, Conterno announced early on that he'd be offering the estate's flagship Monfortino bottling. The reason? Conterno's Cascina Francia vines in Serralunga were spared the September hailstorm, and Conterno let the fruit hang very late in order to get sound phenolic ripeness. "It basically stopped raining after the early September hailstorm in the region and we benefited from a long period with cool nights. We eventually harvested in Cascina Francia on October 18 and 19, eliminating only the dried grapes. There was very little need to throw out anything else in 2002. " Conterno went on: "There was no in-between in this vintage," he told me. "There's either nebbiolo, which in this region was unfortunately often bottled as Barolo, or there's wine with great power. When we saw what we had harvested, my father said 'let's make only Monfortino. '" Conterno told me I was the first journalist he had showed the wine to (?), then made me promise not to publish a note. I can report that the sample I tasted, though reduced, had a very deep color; a wonderfully primary, sappy nose; almost shockingly young flavors of black fruits and minerals; and building tannins that reached the incisors. It clearly offers outstanding potential, but it remains to be seen how the market will respond to an expensive cult bottling from a forgettable vintage. As a rule, Conterno bottles his Monfortino after seven years of aging in large ovals. ("The reason we harvest so late is that we use only the tannins from the grapes, so we need to have full phenolic maturity," Conterno explained. ) He racks his wine three or four times in the first year, then once a year "at most" thereafter. "The 2001 went two or three years without a racking," he told me. "There's no rule; it depends on how the wine tastes. You know, it's more important that people recognize my wines in a tasting than like them. Otherwise we risk getting lost in the ocean of wine. " Conterno loves the 2004 vintage for both barbera and nebbiolo. "We had incredible fruit and there are many similarities to 2001: similar quantity and similar elements. In both years we eliminated about half of the grapes in a green harvest, and we made only about 28 hectoliters per hectare of Barolo in both years. " (Numerous importers, including Douglas Polaner Selections, New York, NY and The Rare Wine Company, Sonoma, CA)