2013 Conterno Fantino Langhe Chardonnay Bastia

Community Tasting Notes (3) Avg Score: 89.5 points

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  11/22/2015 - NostraBacchus wrote: 88 Points

  Notes of very ripe fruits, some smoke, toast, vanilla and some honey notes. At the moment, everything is a little dominated by the oak. It's medium-full bodied and pretty dense, with medium+ acidity providing freshness. Good length. I would give it 1-3 years to see if the oak better integrates.

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  4/22/2015 - forceberry wrote: 91 Points

  A double-vineyard Chardonnay: part of the grapes come from the Ginestra Cru to bring in richness and weight, the other part from Bricco Bastia to bring in lightness and structure. Aged for a year in barriques (60% new, 40% used).
  
  Intense, concentrated lemon yellow color with pale green highlights. Very rich and opulent nose with very oak driven aromas of cream, peanut butter and general nuttiness, unripe pineapple, toasted wood and hints of apricot. The wine is quite full-bodied with concentrated, almost oily mouthfeel, yet it feels surprisingly light and airy thanks to the good, balanced acidity and bright, crystalline minerality. Very intense flavors of cream, lemon-driven citrus fruit, pineapple, sweet wood, oak toast aromas, some savory spiciness and hints of nuts. Somehow the lemony acidity and rich fruit feel as if the cancel each other out, giving the wine surprisingly balanced and gentle overall character. Very long, rich and oaky finish with mouthwatering, acid zing and flavors of stony minerality, cooked cream, ripe apple, some pineapple and lingering nutty hints.
  
  First I must say, that I am not a fan of heavily oaked Chardonnays (or heavily oaked whites - or, actually, heavily oaked wines) - and this is definitely one. Yet! This wine shows really impressive brightness, structure and balance - to such extent, it actually compensates for the rich oaked character pretty fully. I'm used to Chardonnays that are either rich, oaked and heavy, even dull, or Chardonnays that are light, focused, precise and mineral, without any new oak character. But somehow this wine manages to combine these two parts remarkably well, resulting in a modern, quite heavily oaked Chardonnay that is remarkably enjoyable. I'm really confused, but I must say that Conterno Fantino have pulled off a nice trick with this one. I'm not sure whether the oak ever actually integrates nicely into the wine, but this wine shows nice aging potential for at least 5 following years. Tremendous value at only 13€.

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  3/28/2015 - Rezy13 wrote:

  Conterno Fantino Visit (Monforte d'Alba, Italy): Deeper yellow with green hues; very nice nose of lemon, tart yellow fruit, vanilla, smoke, good crispness; fuller on the palate, vanilla, lemon, solid mid palate; not the minerality of Burgundy but freshness and style are similar; very nice.

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