March 17, 2024 - This was definitely more open and ready to go than the prior bottle. Beautiful nose with red fruit, mint, orange peel, pipe tobacco, evergreen forest floor, and crushed violet. The palate has lovely red cherry, spices and good depth with some structure still underlying. With food the structure is not that notable, but its there and should allow plenty of further development. Really lovely. I think these wines are great and offer fantastic value in the Conterno portfolio.
February 16, 2024 - Susannah and I opened this bottle for one short drink before we went to my birthday party at the John Steven. We liked the wine.
Then, it sat, well-corked, for seven days. We started our lamb chop dinner with it and found it quite luscious. Deep color, full-bodied, despite one week of sitting. Susannah identified “cherries.“
WHERE THE HECK DID I BUY IT? I NEED TO BUY MORE?
January 23, 2024 - Fluctuating…
December 16, 2023 - really fantastic. drank over three days: held up no problem, so dont anticipate needing to be in a hurry to drink, but good youthful fruit and its approachable and fun to drink now. why wait?
October 2, 2023 - PnP at Steps Beach with Neapolitan pizza. Didn't take any formal notes. This was bright with red fruits on the palate with a nice level of acidity. This paired perfectly with the pizza. 93
September 21, 2023 - Drank over two days. Second day showed almost no change, suggesting that this wine will age gracefully over the next 10+ years. Fruit shows some maraschino cherries, with fine tannins giving the wine a solid frame. Drinking beautifully now, but even better in a couple of years. Look forward to enjoying the cru 2016's from this producer!
September 5, 2023 - Coming back to this after some age. PnP. Color is ruby/brick with orange on the rim. On the nose: Cherry, strawberry, forest floor and rose. On the palate: Sour cherry, some sour funk , forest floor, rose, licorice and tar. Sort of Burgundian. Easy to drink. Length is long enough not to be short. This is aging well.
August 22, 2023 - I really like this. Fresh. Light (alpine?) notes across a barolo profile but with a dense and dark core. Not massively complex but sufficiently intersesting. Keep in view the price point here - it’s still v good! The last 3 notes below, whilst different, do tell the slightly confusing story of this wine. The 4th note below, with an 88 point score, is an outlier and seems anamolous - can be discounted /disregarded. This drinks very nicely now. Everything is neatly balanced. There is a core of quality, deep, dark blue fruit that is likely to evolve over time. Will it improve? I am not sure I know. I think that this comes down to how you like your wine. I will err on the side of caution (and positivity) and hold the last 8 bottles for a while. Good QPR. (The ‘18 looks like it will lose the good qpr tag and price against barolo…). It misses the elevation, complexity, and length of a great wine but it only cost £40 and should be judged accordingly.
August 22, 2023 - Translucent crimson. London club old leather chair, black cherry, rose petals and a touch of shoe polish on the nose. Medium bodied, silky tannins with well judged acidity and red fruited (black cherries) on the palate. I can feel the alcohol a little. Not overly complex although very nicely done. I would not expect improvements with additional cellaring (merely evolution) although it will keep for a long while yet. BTG from Zalto Bordeaux.
July 13, 2023 - The wine is in need of at least several years of further bottle aging as it showed the best on day 3. While it was completely shut down upon opening the cork, it evolved into a nice lighter version of Barolo with jammy red berries, earth, autumn leaves, dried mushrooms and even hints of roses by day 3.
This is no match with the greatest Barolos and Barbarescos, but still an outstanding wine that either needs further cellaring or a couple days of air)