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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 93.3 pts. and median of 93 pts. in 67 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by M.Batard on 3/31/2024 & rated 93 points: Popped and poured at Easter dinner after the Cos we’d decanted proved to be beyond its sell-by date. This was delicious, but perhaps the rack of lamb wasn’t its best pairing…. (837 views) | | | Tasted by GArpaia on 3/29/2024: Medium garnet. Pronounced. Bitter profile, chocolate, coffee, meat, oak, tobacco, prune, touch of rubber and tar. Medium+ acidity, High and fine tannins. Velvety. 14,5% abv. Long and bitter finish. (750 views) | | | Tasted by kenv on 3/13/2024 & rated 94 points: 2006 Barolo (Trattoria One Fifth, NYC.): [Double decanted around 10am. Bottle left open until around 2pm.] Huge black fruit nose. The youngest tasting wine here tonight. Not surprising, but this needs so much more time. A decade at least. Dark, rich, but quite restrained at this point. 94-96 (1297 views) | | | Tasted by TobbeVin on 2/18/2024 & rated 94 points: Eye: pale garnet
Nose: M+, red fruit, dried rose, earthy
Mouth: acidity M+, tannin M+, int M+, red fruit, tea
Finish: elegant, beautiful and superlong finish.
A well made wine, maybe a little to young. Give it at least 10 more years, if you can wait. (1324 views) | | | Tasted by Francophile1 on 7/3/2023: July 4th Mondo Event (Atlanta, GA): Tasted blind. This is an intoxicating Barolo with an incredible sinus opening explosion in the glass. Who needs Vick's Vapo Rub, when you can just pop open a bottle of Conterno. Well integrated tannin. This bottle has aged well. If this is what all Barolo tasted like, I would drink it more often. (2544 views) | | | Tasted by Oli_Vilmo on 5/1/2023 & rated 93 points: Very nice Barolo, not too structured, good evolution. A true pleasure with piccata al limone (2594 views) | | | Tasted by Ben Christiansen on 2/13/2023: Really powerful and massive and fruity, even still. Frankly, if I had any, I still leave it down in the cellar. I think this one is on the 20 year Barolo plan! (3076 views) | | | Tasted by bablues on 12/17/2022 & rated 95 points: A gorgeous wine that I have been sitting on for a while. My son wanted something classic and old world for his college graduation so I found this beauty. Turned out to be a great choice as it was his favorite wine of all time. Could not be happier to hear that. Unfortunately I did not take detailed notes, but the memories of the night will last forever. (2719 views) | | | Tasted by WoodieBayArea on 5/18/2022 & rated 92 points: this was a bit of a powerhouse, with dark fruit and earth on the palate... full'ish body, no red fruit (at least not yet) and this had structure (great acidity) to go the long mile -- I mentioned to my friend that I think this will be better in 20-plus more years, 92 for now given it isn't as giving as I would want, but has 93-95 potential if you (I) can keep from opening them (3872 views) | | | Tasted by WineGuyX on 1/9/2022 & rated 94 points: This is evolving very slowly. but surely in the decanter. At hour 2.5 its starting to show beautifully. Typical Barolo nose of pine forest floor, eucalyptus, tilled earth, pressed flowers/potpourri and baked black cherries. This is dry and tannic on the palate. That said, all the aromas echo through the palate with mouth-watering acidity. Can't wait to try this with Coq au Vin!
After 6+ hours decanted, it's clear that this is either in a dumb phase or simply way too young (or both). However, there is now much more sweet red/sour cherry/cough drop fruit and loads of saddle leather. I'd opt for giving this another 4-5 years. 94+ (3866 views) | | | Tasted by tropa56 on 12/24/2021 & rated 97 points: Wow. This wine will live forever. I will not open another bottle for years. Thankfully opened xmas eve during the day with a bunch of people. Tannins literally tore my mouth apart. Decanted it and started drinking other wines. Poured the wine around midnight and it was phenomenal. Hugely structured, full bodied and chewy. The decant softened the tannins to the point of being smooth and silky. Flavors were classic CF . Tar , roses, cherry , licorice. Amazing. (293 views) | | | Tasted by cardsandwine on 3/12/2021: Incredible wine. 5 hour slo-o at home before bringing to restaurant. A beautiful expression of Nebbiolo that will age for a few decades. Round and delicious and finishes with considerable elegance and length. Truly a wine with soul! (5381 views) | | | Tasted by bnqwallace on 2/7/2021 & rated 94 points: Surprisingly approachable showing glimpses of its potential. Still quite tight and tannic. Will become a great wine. (4778 views) | | | Tasted by WoodieBayArea on 10/24/2020 & rated 93 points: absolutely beautiful, traditional in style and therefore would benefit from more time, ut after a couple hour decant (then drunk over 2-3 hours) this was a great combo of fruit and secondary palate elements... wood / tea / structure (acidity and significant tannin) on the secondary side and great red fruit compote on the fruit side... loved it when I discovered I have 6 more stashed away... if disciplined I will not touch another for 5-7 years and will drink them over the next 30 years... yeah - FAT CHANCE of that! (4909 views) | | | Tasted by bartgab on 6/28/2020 & rated 96 points: Cone non amarlo???? Ancora giovanissimo con un acidità perfetta ed avvolgente. Un vino dritto, coerente, a tratti “muscolare” con una struttura ricca e resistente. Sentori di rosa, erbe e una punta di sandalo e liquorizia. Grande Vino che inizia solo ora ad esprimersi (4789 views) | | | Tasted by vulgar little monkey on 6/12/2020 & rated 94 points: Decanted about 3 hours before dinner. This was more tightly coiled than the Brovia with less sweetness and more iron, minerals and a limestone tautness. As it opens up over the course of dinner the notes of fruit and all the other classic Francia Barolo aromas and flavors emerge. I didn't get the sense of a "wall of tannin" as other notes have described it, rather as a very coiled wine slowly unfurling. I find it more wiry strong than monolithically powerful. Probably another 6-8 years out, I think, although I enjoyed it enough so that I wasn't sad I opened it. (4030 views) | | | Tasted by osordal on 2/17/2020 & rated 93 points: Decanted for around 6 hours. Ruby red, no signs of decent age judged by the colour. Expressive nose with dark red berries, somwhat less floral than the 2007. Multiple layers of fruit. Some tar, smoke and spices. Red berries on the palate, slight reductive elements. Long. 93P. Not as elegant as the 2007, maybe the bottle was not perfect, but I d wait 10 years for the next bottle. (4066 views) | | | Tasted by LWI on 2/16/2020 & rated 93 points: Blind. Expressive, deep, a hint of VA, impressive, dark-fruited, complex. (3674 views) | | | Tasted by Jeremy Holmes on 10/8/2019: It was immediately expressive and so pure. It initially smelt of a rose garden, all petals and black earth. With air there was cherry fruit. It showed some pine needle notes and was direct and strong in the mouth. Flavours built through the palate and it was very savoury and long on the finish. There’s a gentle meatiness to finish with. (4214 views) | | | Tasted by acyso on 9/9/2019 & rated 95 points: Dinner at Pizzeria Bebu (Chicago, IL): I opened this about 12 hours before dinner; it was a little prickly and high-toned at first, but slow oxing it over the half day seemed to draw out the more volatile elements. When we first poured this with dinner, it was an absolutely stunner. Ethereal and bright, raspberries and other tart red fruit with just a light hint of spice. This didn't have the black fruit that I associate with the vintage, though it certainly had that tannic density (or maybe that's just Roberto). The pouring obviously introduced quite a bit of air into the bottle, and an hour or two afterwards, this just clamped down really hard, almost as if this was a drive-by hello. We decided to leave the balance of the bottle unfinished, and I'll report back in the next day or two.
I put a Repour on this and revisited it on the fourth day; it needed a little bit of air to pick up, but it certainly did. There were some more mature elements here, with a hint of leather, a nice touch of herbal and red fruit, and a little more all-round openness. I'm pretty convinced that there's indeed some seriously good material here. The next bottle probably won't be opened for a while... (5144 views) | | | Tasted by MC2 Wines on 6/14/2019: Opened and double decanted before being brought to the restaurant and then decanted again at the restaurant and still it's clear this wine is just too young. It's wonderful, but I always feel like I'm baby killing. There's a certain tightness to the wine. A bit wound up. The darker fruit is there, but it's not as expressive as it could be. Everything almost behind a mini-veil. If we had a bottle I'd wait. Probably at least 10 years. (4163 views) | | | Tasted by cbforever1 on 5/26/2018 & rated 89 points: Six more months and bottle consistent with the previous one. Not up to the reputation (5093 views) | | | Tasted by NostraBacchus on 1/20/2018 & rated 95 points: Still young and slightly closed, this will take some more time. Dark tones of dark plum, dark red berries, tar, some crushed tobacco leaf, sweet spices, also some minerality. It's full-bodied, dense and powerful, with high tannin and high acidity. The tannin is a touch rustic compared to some of the other vintages. This will clearly need some more time. Excellent lenght. A wine full of potential but the pleasure factor of some of the other vintages is definitely higher at the moment. (95+) (6355 views) | | | Tasted by cbforever1 on 12/25/2017 & rated 90 points: Did not meet expectation. Quite muted, evolved, tannic, unbalanced. It might improve but who knows (4917 views) | | | Tasted by Papies on 10/14/2017 & rated 90 points: 2017 Piemonte trip for Thuy's 40th!; 10/12/2017-10/15/2017 (Piemonte, Italy): Tasted blind and we went again for a 2007 as we knew it was a Barolo.
This is definitely a good wine but had a very strong menthol and liquorice note on the nose that made it a bit out of tune. The rest of the wine was spot one with good dark fruit, good acidity and in a way classically made. 90-91 (6163 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| The World of Fine Wine, December 2015, Issue #50
(Giacomo Conterno Cascina Francia) Login and sign up and see review text. | By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (2/17/2011)
(Giacomo Conterno, Serralunga d'Alba Cascina Francia Barolo Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Antonio Galloni
Vinous, New Releases from Piedmont (Dec 2010)
(Giacomo Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia) Subscribe to see review text. | By Stephen Tanzer
Vinous, November/December 2009, IWC Issue #147
(Giacomo Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of The World of Fine Wine and JancisRobinson.com and Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| Giacomo Conterno Producer website
Ken Vastola's fabulous guide to G. Conterno labels
Praelum: “Arguably the King of Barolo. No wine journey is complete without the tasting of one of the great Conternos. ‘Only premium quality can bring prestige to the Langhe.’ Giovanni Conterno taught his two sons Giacomo and Roberto after World War I to ferment and age wines in Bottis with prolonged maceration and ageing. The brothers split in 1969 and Giacomo started investing in his own vineyards since 1974. The wines of Cascina Francia, Monfortino and recently, Ceretta from Serralunga d’Alba are amongst the finest expressions of Nebbiolo that the wine world has ever seen. 4-6 years ageing usually.”NebbioloNebbiolo is a red grape indigenous to the Piedmont region of Italy in the Northwest. The grape can also be found in other parts of the world, though they are not as respected.
Nebbiolo is often considered the "king of red wines," as it is the grape of the famed wines of Barolo DOCG, Barbaresco DOCG, and Roero DOCG. It is known for high tannins and acidity, but with a distinct finesse. When grown on clay, Nebbiolo can be very powerful, tannic, and require long aging periods to reach its full potential. When grown on sand, the grape exhibits a more approachable body with more elegant fruit and less tannins, but still has high aging potential.
"Nebbiolo" is named for the Italian word, "nebbia", which means "fog", in Italian and rightfully so since there is generally a lot of fog in the foothills of Piedmont during harvest.
Nebbiolo is a late-ripening variety that does best in a continental climate that boasts moderate summers and long autumns. In Piedmont, Nebbiolo is normally harvested in October.
More links:
Varietal character (Appellation America) | Nebbiolo on CellarTrackerCascina Francia On weinlagen-infoItaly Italian Wines (ItalianMade.com, The Italian Trade Commission) | Italian Wine Guide on the WineDoctorPiedmont Vignaioli Piemontesi (Italian only)
On weinlagen-infoLanghe Consorzio di Tutela Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe e Roero | Union of Producers of Albese Wines (Albeisa)BaroloRegional History:
The wines of Piedmont are noted as far back as Pliny's Natural History. Due to geographic and political isolation, Piedmont was without a natural port for most of its history, which made exportation treacherous and expensive. This left the Piedmontese with little incentive to expand production. Sixteenth-century records show a mere 14% of the Bassa Langa under vine -- most of that low-lying and farmed polyculturally. In the nineteenth century the Marchesa Falletti, a frenchwoman by birth, brought eonologist Louis Oudart from Champagne to create the first dry wines in Piemonte. Along with work in experimental vineyards at Castello Grinzane conducted by Camilo Cavour -- later Conte di Cavour, leader of the Risorgimento and first Prime Minister of Italy -- this was the birth of modern wine in the Piedmont. At the heart of the region and her reputation are Alba and the Langhe Hills. This series of weathered outcroppings south of the Tanaro River is of maritime origin and composed mainly of limestone, sand and clay, known as terra bianca. In these soils -located mainly around the towns of Barolo and Barbaresco -- the ancient allobrogica, now Nebbiolo, achieves its renowned fineness and power.
map of Barolo DOCG
An interesting thread on Traditional vs. Modern Barolo producers:
https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=106291 |
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