Description
Poderi Aldo Conterno, Barolo “Bussia”
This is one of those time-tested classics, an unimpeachable great. What more need to be said about it? The Conterno family and the “Bussia” vineyard in Monforte d’Alba—the largest and arguably most famous cru in the Barolo DOCG—have been inextricably linked for generations.
Take a gander at any major private wine collection and you’ll see Aldo Conterno bottles on display racks next to the likes of DRC, Mouton-Rothschild, Harlan Estate…whatever your definition of “blue chip” is, Conterno’s “Bussia” belongs in the company. And yet, as I never tire of reminding everyone, this is a wine that will outlive most of its elite competition and still, despite its outsized reputation and proven track record, is the greatest value on that display rack by a wide margin. Barolo is still a “value stock,” and you can’t ask for more upside than Aldo Conterno!
The Conterno family’s winemaking roots in the Barolo village of Monforte d’Alba go back to the 19th century, and it was Aldo’s father, Giacomo, who was among the first to commercialize bottled Barolo back in the 1920s and ‘30s. The Giacomo Conterno estate, still one of Barolo’s most iconic, is where Aldo and his brother, Giovanni, cut their wine teeth in the ‘50s and ‘60s—but in 1969 Aldo struck out on his own, purchasing a farm called “Il Favot” in Monforte and leaving Giovanni to run Giacomo Conterno. While the Giacomo Conterno winery was/is based in Monforte, its legendary “Francia” vineyard was/is in the neighboring village of Serralunga; Aldo’s vineyards were/are in the “Bussia” hamlet of Monforte, with a little more of a full-south exposure than the west-facing Francia. Traditionally, the Aldo Conterno Barolos are perhaps a little burlier and darkly fruited than the earthy, ethereal Giacomo Conterno wines, though both produce some of the longest-lived wine in the zone.
It could be said that the Aldo Conterno wines skewed more “modern” than the resolutely old-school Giacomo wines. The Barolo of the 1960s and ‘70s was an extremely austere, tannic wine, usually left to macerate on its skins for a good 40 days or more during fermentation and aged in very large, old barrels called botti. The color of the already lightly pigmented Nebbiolo grape destabilized in these larger, usually open-topped, vessels, giving the wine a brickish, orange-y cast even in its youth. Some wines were plagued by funky, bacterial notes from perennially re-used barrels that weren’t well-sanitized (and of course, some were glorious, aromatic wines that resembled Grand Cru red Burgundy). What a new generation of Barolo “modernists” did in the 1970s and ‘80s, first and foremost, was strive to “clean up” Barolo and make it perhaps a little more accessible in its youth. Producers such as Elio Altare and Angelo Gaja sought inspiration in Burgundy and noticed, among other things, the newer, smaller French oak barrels they used for aging. Why not in Barolo?
Aldo Conterno passed away in 2012, but the estate is ably run by his sons, Franco, Stefano, and Giacomo—who, it must be said, employ both “modern” and “traditional” practices. The beating heart of the operation, of course, is the “Bussia” vineyard, known for its bluish marl soils rich in calcium carbonate and iron. Among the Conterno holdings concentrated in this ‘grand cru’ are the single vineyards “Cicala,” “Colonello,” and “Romirasco”—three small, contiguous parcels the sit near the crest of the hill, from which the Conterno family bottles single-vineyard wines. This wine is a blend of numerous different vineyard sites on Bussia—a classic “base” Barolo—incorporating fruit from vines no less than 20 years old. It was aged in large, Slavonian oak casks for 26 months, then refined in bottle for another year before release (the minimum aging for Barolo, by law, is 38 months, with a minimum of 18 in oak barrels).
As Conterno drinkers know, these are powerful wines that can be forbidding in their youth, so you’d be advised to be patient with this ’18. In the glass, it displays a deep crimson/ruby core moving to slight hints of orange at the rim, with a characteristically brooding nose of dried cherry, wild strawberry, tobacco, blood orange peel, rose petals, anise, cedar, and leather. On the palate, it is dense, mineral, and muscular, with ample tannin and mouth-watering acidity. It’s a heady glass of wine, to be sure, one that should enter its peak drinking window around its 10th birthday and continue to age gracefully for another decade-plus beyond that. Few wines in the world are surer bets for the cellar, but whenever the time comes for you, pair this with something braise-y and rich to tame it. Attached is the go-to recipe in Piedmont for a wine of this magnitude. It, like this perennial critical darling of a wine, is a can’t-miss. Enjoy!
