2010 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino

Community Tasting Notes (15) Avg Score: 98.1 points

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  2/2/2024 - Robmcl920 Likes this wine: 100 Points

  Vinous Monfortino Dinner with Roberto Conterno; 2/1/2024-2/2/2024 (Legacy Records, NYC): Tasted again in this vertical after having a full bottle a few weeks ago, the ‘10 showed similarly. In my opinion, it was the best wine in the tasting and a perfect Barolo. Every time I have tasted this wine, it has been very expressive, and it is no crime to open a bottle now. I found pure red cherry fruit, fresh red floral tones, iron, leather, and roasted meats, a perfect combination in my view of dense fruit and savory characteristics. On the palate, it is full bodied, dense but very fresh with high acidity, and again, you get a perfect combination of sweet red fruit and floral notes and the savory iron, leather, and meat. Compared to the other recent vintages (2008, 2013-2015), I found the 2010 to have more savory complexity. It's less fruit forward, but doesn't lack fruit.

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  1/14/2024 - Robmcl920 Likes this wine: 100 Points

  2010 Barolo Tasting; 1/14/2024-1/15/2024: The ‘10 Monfortino is to me a perfect wine - while it will get better in time, it’s already explosive, so powerful but so finessed, a perfect balance of rich, sweet fruit and savory complexity. Of all of the Barolo that I’ve tasted, the only wine that quite hits the same high is the ‘04 Monfortino, and down the road it’ll be great to taste the two together.
  
  The nose was immediately intensely perfumed, starting out quite primary but developing a bit more savory complexity with time. I found pure red cherry fruit, red roses, leather, iron, roast meats, and a number of savory aromatics too complex to put properly in words. It’s so perfectly balanced and cohesive, a perfect blend of primary fruit and tertiary complexity.
  
  On the palate, it is a massive wine, significantly bigger in stature than any of the other ‘10s tasted alongside it. I found a similar flavor profile to the palate, with a mix of pure red cherry fruit and red florals and a host of savory notes like iron, roast meats, and leather. The wine has a ton of tannin, but the tannins are super fine grained and the wine is so massive, that the tannins are almost hidden under the fruit. Acidity is high, giving great freshness to the wine.
  
  Next to the ‘10 Conterno Francia, the Monfortino is in another league. It was more expressive, more complex with a bunch of savory nuance the Francia did not have, more concentrated, and also more finessed with more refined tannins.

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  2/19/2023 - Papies wrote: 97 Points

  Served sort of blind, or informed blind if we can say we we both went for Barolo. No points here though.
  The wine at 12years old ( and undoubtedly young) is still every bit as beautiful and charming with a proper expressive nose so soft cherry, lightest smoky/tarry feel and spice. Its young though and albeit beautiful one cannot but dream of the wine this will one day be. Could this one day be a perfect wine , very much so but we rate wrt the moment and thus this is a 96-97. Patience will be rewarded.

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  9/5/2020 - Robmcl920 Likes this wine: 99 Points

  The 2010 Monfortino is a Barolo of heroic proportions in every way. Despite its youth, the nose is intensely perfumed. The aromatics are cool in tone and suggest great depth and power, emphasizing savory, cool tones more so than fruit - not that it lacks in fruit. I found sweet red cherries, dried roses, tobacco, iron, and tar, all woven together in a very cohesive package. On the palate, the wine is simultaneously massive and yet incredibly finessed. A mass of dark red cherry fruit, tobacco, tar, iron, fresh herbs, and inner floral tones sweep across the palate, and there is almost a sense of thickness due to the sheer concentration. But then there is almost no perception of tannins at all, and the red fruit shows a beautiful sweetness. It's all effortless.
  
  The 2010 Monfortino seems destined to be a perfect Barolo. It's massive, savory and cool in tone, and yet drinks with an ease that's hard to believe, with incredibly finessed tannins. The flavor profile is textbook Nebbiolo, just with everything dialed up a few notches.
  
  I also tasted the '10 Francia recently. In comparison, the '10 Monfortino is both denser but also more finessed, and I also found the '10 Monfortino more open aromatically than the Francia. The Monfortino also showed more depth including savory tones the Francia did not. While there's clearly some similarities in the core flavor profile, I think the Monfortino is at least several notches superior in 2010.

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  3/6/2020 - vvWine.ch Likes this wine: 100 Points

  2010, Barolo Riserva ‚Monfortino‘, Giacomo Conterno, Serralunga d’Alba, Piemont, Italien. Kräftiges Rubin, etwas dunkler in der Farbe als der Cerretta. Die Nase ist schlicht umwerfend. Neben dem ganzen Blumen-Programm, das auch beim Cerretta wahrnehmbar war, kommen da weitere Aromen dazu, die von Pflaumen über Stein, Rauch, Oliven bis hin zu Lakritze und schwarzer Schokolade reichen. Kein Element überwiegt, alles ist präsent und spielt souverän seine Rolle im Duftbild. Im Gaumen ein Monument, noch sehr jugendlich, nach zirka zwei Stunden Luft im Dekanter aber erstaunlich gut zugänglich. Druckvoll, kräftig, dicht und dabei sowas von elegant, mir fehlen einfach die Worte. Die Tannine sind von höchster Güte, die Säure belebt, die Frucht ist auf den Punkt gereift, alles ist an seinem Platz. Im Abgang mit nicht enden wollender Länge. Hervorragend! Ich durfte in meinem Leben erst rund eine Hand voll Monfortinos probieren, doch dieser 2010er stellt die bisher probierten Jahrgänge (darunter war auch ein 1990er) allesamt in den Schatten. Das ist zweifelsohne Barolo-Perfektion, ich ziehe meinen Hut. Jetzt (lange dekantieren) besser ab 2025-2050+, 20 vvPunkte (100/100).
  vvWine.ch

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