2013 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino Riserva, Piedmont

About this wine

The 2013 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino Riserva is one of the rarest and most coveted releases of the modern Monfortino era. Roberto Conterno made an extraordinary decision with the 2013 vintage: he diverted the entire Cascina Francia harvest into Monfortino, declassifying the Barolo Francia bottling for the year. He had only done this once before, in 2002. The result is a wine of exceptional depth from a vineyard already considered one of the great sites of Serralunga d'Alba. The 2013 follows directly from the perfect-100-point 2010, Monfortino was not produced in 2011 or 2012, making it the first Monfortino release in three years and one of the most anticipated bottles of its generation.

Aged approximately six years in large traditional Slavonian oak botti before bottling and released roughly seven years after harvest, the 2013 shows the classic Monfortino architecture: tar, rose petal, dried cherry, tobacco, sandalwood, fine cedar spice, and a backbone of firm, classically austere tannins. Critics scored it 99 points (Vinous, Wine Spectator) and 98 points (James Suckling), with Antonio Galloni describing it as huge, towering, marked by serious fruit intensity. Built for decades, best drinking 2025 through 2050.

About Giacomo Conterno

Giacomo Conterno is the most celebrated traditional producer of Barolo, and Monfortino, first made by the founder's son Giovanni in 1920, is its flagship. The estate is rooted in Cascina Francia (renamed simply "Francia" for the 2010 vintage onward by Italian law), a roughly 9-hectare hillside in Serralunga d'Alba acquired in 1974 and recognised as one of the great cru sites of the Langhe. Six generations of the Conterno family have shaped the house's defining philosophy: extended fermentations, aging exclusively in large Slavonian oak botti, no shortcuts, no concessions to fashion.

Roberto Conterno, who took over after his father Giovanni's passing in 2004, has continued this lineage with absolute fidelity, patient, uncompromising, and singularly focused on the long arc of each vintage. The harvest-to-release timeline is extraordinary: roughly two years for the Barberas, four years for the Baroli, and approximately seven years for Monfortino itself. The Conterno wines, and Monfortino especially, remain among the most sought-after in the world of fine wine.