1998 Barolo Riserva Monfortino

This wine was tasted as part of Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1970-2006, the first complete vertical of every vintage of Monfortino bottled in magnum between 1970 and 2006. The event was held on May 12, 2014 in London.

Ask producers in the region which wine represents the pinnacle of winemaking in the Langhe the answer you are most likely to hear is Giacomo Conterno's Barolo Riserva Monfortino, which has long been an iconic wine in these parts. The estate produces three wines, all from its Cascina Francia vineyard in Serralunga. The Barbera is usually one of the top wines in the region. It sees 21 months of aging in medium size casks before being released. Conterno is most known for his two Barolos, Cascina Francia and the Monfortino Riserva, which is only produced in top vintages. When the vintage warrants, Conterno makes a selection of the very best grapes just before harvest, and this fruit is destined for the Monfortino. Depending on climactic conditions various parcels within the Cascina Francia vineyard mature differently, so the exact source of the fruit for the Monfortino can vary from year to year. Cascina Francia is fermented in stainless steel, with temperature control, for 3-4 weeks. Aging takes place in large Slavonian oak casks for 4 years. For the Monfortino, the grapes are fermented in a combination of open-top wood vats and stainless steel tanks without temperature control for 4-5 weeks. The wine is then aged in a single large Slavonian oak cask for 7 years. Conterno employs a very minimalist approach in the cellar when it comes to making his wines. He believes the work is done in the vineyards, where his yields are typically below 4,000 kilos per hectare. Conterno employs only natural yeasts and the wines are not fined or filtered prior to bottling. Both of Conterno's Barolos are legendary for their extraordinary complexity and aging potential. Monfortino in particular is a reference point wine in the region, a standard among which all other wines are measured, both modern and traditional. Simply put, these are reference-point wines for the region that no one who loves Barolo will want to be without. The only problem consumers are likely to face is one of allocation of resources, as Conterno has a range of exceptional wines from recent vintages on the market today. While not inexpensive, the quality of these wines is extraordinary, and I can't recommend them highly enough. In particular the 1999 Barolo Riserva Monfortino is not to be missed. “I've always believed 1999 is a truly great vintage, one that unites classical structure with ripeness, profound aromatics and power,” says Roberto Conterno. “Of course the wines will require some bottle age to come around, but these are magnificent Barolos that will be extremely long-lived. We had a very well-balanced growing season in 1999. We received a healthy amount of snow in the winter, which gave the vines some reserves of water. The spring was warm, but the temperatures remarkably consistent, so I didn't need to intervene much in the vineyard at all. We had a warm summer, but without excessive heat, and very even weather all the way through the fall. The harvest was fairly late. We began picking around October 16-17, so although not quite as late as 1996, when we harvested the nebbiolos on the 20th of October, it was still a fairly late harvest by today's standards. The vines were not overly productive so we only ended up dropping 30-35% of our fruit during the green harvests, as opposed to vintages like 2001 and 2004 which required more dramatic greenharvesting.”

For our January meeting my local tasting group gathered to survey the wines of Francesco Rinaldi and Luciano Sandrone, two producers who represent different schools of thought when it comes to Barolo. By the time the evening was over however, we had also opened terrific bottles from Bruno Giacosa, Bartolo Mascarello, and Giacomo Conterno. Not a bad way to spend a cold winter evening. On this night I was fortunate to host the group at my house. For the occasion I prepared a simple meal to accompany the wines, including tagliolini al ragu (featuring pasta directly from Alba), osso buco, and a selection of cheeses. As always, a great time was had by all.

We started with a selection of wines from Francesco Rinaldi, a producer whose wines I have only tasted sporadically over the years. As much as I love traditional Barolo, the house style here is on the austere side, and frankly a bit much for me. Some might say the wines simply need time to reach maturity. That may be the case, but even the wines from 1958 and 1964 retained the estate's characteristic unyielding, monolithic personality and it is not likely that any amount of further bottle age will alter their fundamental qualities. That said, several of my fellow tasters found the wines captivating and more enjoyable than I did. Regardless, this was a great opportunity to taste this estate's wines over a span of years including many historic vintages such as 1958, 1964, 1971, 1982, and 1985. The bottles were all pristine and the wines have held up extremely well.

Our next grouping consisted of two wines served blind. Giacosa's 1986 Barbaresco Santo Stefano and Bartolo Mascarello's 1980 Barolo show the heights Nebbiolo can reach in the hands of a serious producer even in lesser vintages. Both wines were outstanding and while clearly not at the level of each respective producer's finest wines, they offer a compelling mature-Nebbiolo drinking experience today. We then moved into a flight of Luciano Sandrone's great Barolos from the 1980s. Over the years Sandrone has been the producer who has most successfully bridged the gap between traditional and modern styles in Barolo. Tasting these wines together was a revelation, allowing us to track this producer's evolution. The only thing missing was a bottle of the mythical 1990 to cap things off, but as the song goes, you can't always get what you want.

After several hours of tasting and debating we arrived at our final flight. The theme? Monfortino old and new. We were fortunate to taste an impeccable bottle of the 1978 Monfortino, which is on my short list as one of the greatest Barolos ever produced. Tasting this wine from a perfect bottle is always an unforgettable experience. With it we paired the 1998, the most recent release. It was a great way to finish off the dinner.

Roberto Conterno rates 1999 tops among recent vintages, followed by 2001 and then 2000. "Nineteen ninety-nine is the most complex wine," he told me, "while the 2000 is a very elegant Barolo for earlier drinking. Two thousand one was an excellent vintage with a tendency toward overproduction," he went on, adding that by cutting a lot of grapes in August he was able to limit production to about 30 hectoliters per hectare. "The young 2001s are currently sterner than the relatively open 2000s," he noted. As I reported in Issue 105, the estate replaced its freisa and dolcetto with barbera and nebbiolo after the 2000 vintage, and now ages its barbera for 21 months in large casks (prior to the 2001 vintage, the barbera was bottled the summer after the harvest). But with that exception, Conterno pointed out, "nothing has changed in the vinification here, and there is never any clarification of the wines prior to bottling. "

Among the new developments at this renowned traditionalist: the Conternos replaced their dolcetto and freisa with nebbiolo and barbera after the 2000 vintage and will now concentrate on just two varieties. Also, beginning with the 2001 vintage, they will age their barbera a full year longer (21 months vs. 9) - "the way the wines were made 30 years ago," according to Roberto Conterno, who added that 2001 was a good time to make this change as this vintage supports longer aging.The Conterno Barolos continue to spend a long time on their skins during the fermentation (a month or more for the Monfortino, a bit less for the Cascina Francia) and are aged exclusively in large old Slavonian ovals. The Cascina Francia is bottled during the fourth year after the vintage and the Monfortino during the seventh year. "Only the use of large barrels enables us to maintain the particular aromatic characteristics of each year," explains Conterno. "The weather conditions we have during July create the terpenes, the classic Barolo perfumes like rose petal and camphor, and we find these aromatic characteristics only after three or four years of aging the wines in larger casks. Certainly barriques give certain advantages but we think that they standardize the wines." Conterno told me he was most fond of '99 and '97 among his recent vintages, but he noted that '98 had a more classical balance.