Diego Conterno Barolo Ginestra 2019

‘Conterno’ is a surname that’s synonymous with Monforte d’Alba, & coincidentally quite a few of them are Barolo producers!

This Conterno family is related to that of Conterno-Fantino through father Diego – but unrelated when it comes to wine style! – & their new winery is ironically located just up the slope from Giacomo Conterno, of no relation. Diego, a graduate of the Umberto 1 Enological School, is well-grounded in making traditional Barolo, having worked under Beppe Colla at Prunotto. In 2000 Diego decided to sell his share of Conterno-Fantino, take his vines including the plum Ginestra plot, & started afresh.

While 2003 was their first vintage as ‘Diego Conterno’, producing all of 1300 bts of Barolo (Ginestra), the family’s history dates back to the post WWII Baroli of ancestors Lorenzo & Attilio Conterno. 2005 witnessed 100% of the estate fruit being bottled. Father & son tend the vines & make the wines; Stefano joining in 2010 – the first year their Sori Ginestra was bottled separately! Aided by a new wing to their winery in 2014, allowing them a bit more space, Diego & Stefano are making classic Monforte Barolo: static fermenters (not rotos), cement & the use of increasingly large botte grande (another two due late 2016), to give broad, brambly & minerally pure Baroli. But perhaps the winery’s greatest surprise, apart from the profondita of their Barolo Ginestra, is the pineapply Langhe Nascetta, grown on grey marl soils – rich & minerally!

Diego, his wife Anna & ‘children’ Stefano (27 & a surveyor by training) & Lorenza (now a nurse), have 7.5ha of vineyards located in the village; 2ha of which are in the ‘Grand Cru’ vineyard of Ginestra, the ‘Sori’ (full south) heart of which faces plum south at right angles to the sun & was planted in 1982. The remaining 5.5ha are split between Nebbiolo for Barolo vineyards of San Pietro, Pajana & Gris (grey in dialect on account of its fine grey marl soil); they also have Nebbiolo (d’Alba), Barbera, Dolcetto & Nascetta planted in the full west facing Ferrione vineyard below the winery itself. From vintage 2018, the family has begun renting a small parcel of Monforte Le Coste!

Since 2010 all the vineyards have been converted to organic, & certified in 2014.