Giacomo Conterno is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

producer from the Piemonte region in the district of

Langhe The Langhe (; ''Langa'' is from old dialect Mons Langa et Bassa Langa) is a hilly area to the south and east of the river Tanaro in the provinces of Cuneo and Asti in Piedmont, northern Italy. It is famous for its wines, cheeses, and truffles� ...

. From a

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the cultivation and production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feat ...

located in

Monforte d'Alba Monforte d'Alba is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin and about northeast of Cuneo. Monforte d'Alba borders the following municipalities: Barolo, Castiglione Fall ...

, the

Barolo Barolo ( , , ; ) is a red (DOCG) wine produced in the northern Italian region of Piedmont. It is made from the nebbiolo grape and is often described as one of Italy's greatest wines. The zone of production extends into the communes of Baro ...

and

Barbera Barbera is a red Italian wine grape variety that, as of 2000, was the third most-planted red grape variety in Italy (after Sangiovese and Montepulciano). It produces good yields and is known for deep color, full body, low tannins and high levels ...

wines are made by traditionalist methods and are widely considered among the finest produced in the Barolo zone.Asimov, Eric, ''The New York Times'' (April 5, 2010)
A Rare Tasting of Conterno Barolos
/ref>O'Keefe, Kerin, ''The Wine News'' (October/November 2008)
Safeguarding Barolo
Kramer, Matt, ''Wine Spectator'' (May 18, 2010)
Belief in Barbera
/ref>Cooke, Jo, ''Wine Spectator'' (February 20, 2004)
Piedmont Vintner Giovanni Conterno Dies
/ref>Beltrami, Edward, ''The Wine News'' (October/November 1997)

Yarrow, Alder, vinography.com (June 27, 2009)

/ref>

History

From unclear descriptions of its origin, the Cantine Giacomo Conterno production of Barolo may have begun in 1908 with the founding of Giovanni Conterno's tavern in San Giuseppe near Monforte d'Alba, or after his son Giacomo Conterno returned from service in World War I, with the first Barolo riserva either bottled in 1912 or 1920.polanerselections.co
Giacomo Conterno
/ref> Notwithstanding, Conterno coming from a family with

viticultural Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ...

roots in the region going back to the 18th century, is considered one of the first small Barolo producers to bottle an own wine, beginning in the 1920s during a time when Barolo was normally sold in

cask A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids ...

demijohn A carboy, also known as a demijohn or a lady jeanne, is a rigid container with a typical capacity of . Carboys are primarily used for transporting liquids, often drinking water or chemicals. They are also used for in-home fermentation of bev ...

and intended for early drinking. Giovanni Conterno died in 1934 and Giacomo Conterno created a Barolo with vast aging potential, named Monfortino for the home village Monforte d'Alba. For 54 years two Barolos, a ''normale'' and riserva, were produced from purchased

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

s, made by the motto that a Barolo at the time of bottling should be "undrinkable", though be a great bottle after twenty, thirty, forty years. Giacomo Conterno's sons, Giovanni and Aldo Conterno, formally took over the estate in 1961. With the older Giovanni Conterno already responsible for winemaking since the 1959 vintage, Aldo Conterno eventually parted over conflicting winemaking philosophies with his brother, and founded his own estate Poderi Aldo Conterno in 1969. While Giacomo Conterno wines represent the strictly traditional Barolo winemaking philosophy, Aldo Conterno too shares the view that the "modernist" approach of using small ''barriques'' in combination with shorter maceration times undermines the character of Barolo and add a

vanillin Vanillin is an organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a phenolic aldehyde. Its functional groups include aldehyde, hydroxyl, and ether. It is the primary component of the ethanolic extract of the vanilla bean. Synthetic vanillin ...

sweetness to the wine that overrides the inherent fruit of the nebbiolo.Maresca, Tom, ''The Wine News'' (October/November 2002)
Spotlight on Barolo
In 1974 Giovanni Conterno purchased the Cascina Francia

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

in Serralunga, bringing an end to the era of purchasing fruit from local farmers. The first vintage of wine made from own vineyard was 1978, though the name Cascina Francia did not appear on the label of the ''normale'' until the 1980 vintage. Giovanni Conterno's youngest son Roberto began to work by his father's side in 1988, and after Giovanni Conterno died at 75 in February 2004, Roberto Conterno continued the family industry in the strict traditionalist fashion. In 2008 Roberto Conterno purchased a vineyard in Serralunga's Cerretta, from which wine was produced beginning with the 2008 vintage. In 2015 Roberto bought from Cantina Gigi Rosso the prized nine-hectare Arione vineyard, next to Cascina Francia. The new vineyard includes just over 3.5 ha Nebbiolo da Barolo, just over 1ha Nebbiolo d'Alba and just over 1ha Barbera d'Alba.

Production

While the Barolo riserva Monfortino is only produced in exceptional years, the Barolo Cascina Francia is not made every year either, exemplified by the difficult 2002 vintage of rain and hail, which allowed only for a small amount of grapes acceptable to make Monfortino, but not Cascina Francia, the first time that a riserva was produced but no ''normale''.Asimov, Eric, ''The New York Times'': The Pour (April 6, 2010)
Comparing Conterno Barolos: Cascina Francias and Monfortinos
/ref> The

Nebbiolo Nebbiolo (, ; ) is an Italian red wine grape variety predominantly associated with its native Piedmont region, where it makes the ''Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita'' (DOCG) wines of Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara, Ghemme, a ...

and Barbera grapes come from the vineyard Cascina Francia in

Serralunga d'Alba Serralunga d'Alba is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin and about northeast of Cuneo. Serralunga d'Alba borders the following municipalities: Alba, Castiglione F ...

, entirely owned by the Giacomo Conterno estate. From the 2009 vintage wines are forthcoming from the newly acquired Cerretta vineyard holding with 2 ha of Nebbiolo and 1 ha of Barbera, with the Nebbiolo classified as Langhe Nebbiolo. The wines are to be vinified in the same traditional manner as the Cascina Francia wines. *;Barbera d'Alba DOC Cascina Francia Aged 2 years in ''botti'' (traditional large casks). The production is . *;Barolo DOCG Cascina Francia Not made in less than satisfactory vintages, the wine macerates on its skins for 3–4 weeks at controlled temperatures below 30

°C The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius temperature scale "Celsius temperature scale, also called centigrade temperature scale, scale based on 0 ° for the melting point of water and 100 ° for the boiling point ...

and is aged 4 years in ''botti''. The production is ca. . *;Barolo riserva DOCG Monfortino Made only in exceptional vintages, the wine macerates on its skins for up to five weeks with no temperature control regardless of how high the fermentation temperatures may go, and is aged 7 years in ''botti''. Baudains, Richard, ''Decanter.com'' (May 23, 2006).Beyond Barolo
/ref> The production is ca. .

References

Giacomo Conterno fact sheet
Rare Wine Co. ;Footnotes {{DEFAULTSORT:Conterno, Giacomo Wineries of Italy