A century of Monfortino di Giacomo Conterno, historical vertical tasting

Presentation by Daniele Cernilli

100 years old? In fact, there are even tales of bottles from 1922, but it’s been since 1924 that wine, then produced by Giacomo Conterno, has been coming out on the market.

It was a time when the vast majority of production was bulk wines, consumed almost only at the places of production. Monfortino was The first “peasant” wine to rise to at least national fame. With the exclusion of the first few vintages (when the label also read “Extra Barolo”) it was called just “Vino Monfortino” and this went on until the mid-1960s.

Giacomo first and his son Giovannithen wanted thus to emphasize with pride the “Montfortian” origins of their wine.. An outstanding red from the start, with embarrassing longevity, as well as surprising.

Today, since Giovanni’s passing several years ago, there is his son Roberto, an equally strict man, who inherited many things from his father, including a certain very Langa-like reserve. This vertical, in a sense, is the story of his family through the most prestigious wine they have ever made.

Since 1985, Giovanni and then Roberto have used the advice of Professor Donato Lanati. A family friend far more than a consultant. Part of the credit for making the Monfortino a legend also goes to him.

The Monfortino as seen from Vinogodi

Given the exceptional nature of the topic, I traced the entire production history of this iconic wine, tasting not all available vintages but a significant representation from each decade so as to assess its extraordinary longevity.

Youth

Let’s start with the “young” Monfortino, that is, the vintages after 2000. The wine was born between Serralunga D’Alba and Monforte D’Alba from the historic vineyards of Cascina Francia, property of the Conterno family since the 1970s. An extraordinary cru capable of offering grapes of absolute quality. The care in the vineyard is maniacal, macerations are very long and resting in large barrels takes place with almost monastic calm.

Despite being marketed when many wines are already declining, as a young wine Monfortino shows a surprising balance, combined with vigor and that unmistakable perception that its life will be very long.

The summary of this first phase: the young Monfortino is a wild horse to tame, but it already gives sensations of austerity, balance and unparalleled potential.

Maturity

Despite being one of the longest-lived wines in the world, Monfortino also follows an evolutionary parabola. I will preface this by saying that the bottles tasted came from optimal storage conditions: 12-15 °C, 70-80% humidity, total darkness and no vibration.

The various verticals confirm a clear picture: the almost brazen exuberance of adolescence is followed by a maturity that brings sensory complexity, sublime articulation and extraordinary drinking ability, making it an undisputed champion of the type.

To sum up: after 15 years Monfortino takes on characteristics of its own: great complexity, continuous evolution in the glass, irresistible drinkability. In classic vintages it reaches its peak here, but its run of pleasure will still be very long…

Full maturity

It is striking how, even through the decades, the Monfortino retains a consistent stylistic signature, based on elegance, finesse, sobriety and balance: the real secret of great wines. It has never been a wine of great color extraction; it is born soft red and remains on relatively light tones even with age.

The aromas, with time, become ethereal, graceful, almost oriental. The acidity, legendary, sustains a surprising freshness even after very long years, giving pure and memorable emotions.

In summary: the Monfortino has a very long, almost interminable evolutionary parabola. Two generations would not be enough to see its final end. It starts at its best between the ages of 10 and 15, touches its peak-in the great vintages-between the ages of 40 and 60, and declines with extreme slowness until it nears the century mark.

For all the wines, the grapes are – of course – 100% Nebbiolo. Long macerations in large oak barrels for first fermentation, followed by malolactic fermentation and very long maturation (even 7 years) in the same barrels.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2019

Score: 99/100
Approximate price: € 2.000,00

Intense red with garnet nuances. Endless floral nuances, enriched by menthol notes, jellied strawberries, noble spices and garrigue. Impressive mouthfeel for extractive phase, tannic complexity and freshness that will make it last forever. Endless persistence.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2015

Score: 99/100
Approximate price: € 1.500,00

Intense and very bright red. Powerful olfactory progression, with macerated roses, violet, geranium. Spicy and balsamic, it broadens to notes of underbrush, then noble leather, sweet tobacco, cocoa. In the mouth it shows extreme strength and at the same time seductive, with austere character, very full body, great stimulating capacity, with tight but very fine tannic texture.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2014

Score: 99/100
Approximate price: € 1.400,00

Bright, iridescent red, without excessive concentration. Impressive intensity of aromas, with mentholated and balsamic notes, pine needles, red berries of underbrush and fresh watermelon, currants and raspberries, macerated rosehips. The mouth is of extraordinary tension, with tannins of finesse. Simply amazing, perhaps the greatest Monfortino of the past two decades.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2013

Score: 99/100
Approximate price: € 1.300,00

Clear ruby with fascinating chromatic facets. Relatively compressed aromas, then opens up with iodine and balsamic sensations, a fruitiness still well present, floral to the extreme. Mouth splendid for lively acid-tannic relationship, stimulating, saturating, austere but killer drinkability. Extraordinary wine.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2010

Score: 100/100
Approximate price: € 2.000,00

For our The Essential Guide to Italian Wines 2018 it was the red wine of the year.

Dusky poster color of Nebbiolo. Incredibly intense and varied aromas of roses and wisteria, strawberries and raspberries, autumn underbrush, heathland with bewitching balsamicity. Mouth austere, powerful, impressive in length, with dense if conciliatory tannic texture. A sensory phenomenon. One of the greatest Monfortino in history. Time will determine the podium step of this leviathan in its nearly century-long history.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2008

Score: 98/100
Approximate price: € 1.250,00

It does not have the power of 2006 or 2004, but it is still very fascinating.

Classic garnet ruby. Persuasive, bewitching aromas with distinct balsamic notes, ripe red fruit, spice like few. Medicinal herbs compose a unique picture. It is refined, vigorous, balanced, expressive. The mouth offers slight resistance by dense, majestic tannic texture. Its persistence is epic.

Barolo Monfortino Riserva 2006

Score: 98/100
Approximate price: € 1.500,00

I followed it already from the large barrels in the cellar of origin, tasted many times before release.

Red never particularly charged, but bright and iridescent. Explosive nose of roses, wisteria, mowing flowers, rich with spicy and balsamic notes. Then summer fruit, watermelon and plum, but also citrus. Impressive mouthfeel, with extraordinarily well-crafted matrix, stimulating for lively acidity and tannins of epic density. A marvel for the palate with which it almost quarrels by raping it but which the trained and experienced palate, provoked to the limit, yearns to tame like a bolted horse. Impressive…

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2005

Score: 94+/100
Approximate price: € 1.350,00

Magnificent visual impact, bright light red. So is the olfactory one, hinting at rose, pansy, lovingly tended geranium. The spectrum, however, broadens later, with oxygenation, to medicinal herbs, ripe watermelon. The mouth is fresh, mineral, with that slight tannic asperity that so stimulates the palate. A marvel of drinkability, perhaps the most ready Monfortino of the new millennium along with the 2000 vintage.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2004

Score: 99/100
Approximate price: € 1.800,00

Robert Parker’s famous 100/100. Extraordinary as well, though less rambunctious than 2006, as it benefits from a couple of years in bottle that no doubt did it good.

The color is the usual, bright but never too intense. Nose truly multifaceted, sensations explode over time in the glass, with the usual light watermelon, pansy, spearmint, various underbrush. Mouth solemn, even haughty, austere, devastating in stimulation. Eternal, unforgettable finish….

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2002

Score: 97/100
Approximate price: € 1.500,00

Strange vintage resulting in an original and, in some ways, stylistically anomalous Monfortino. Never would you have expected anything like this in such an unhappy vintage. Roberto (Conterno) interpreted it masterfully by taking risks and waiting for the best time to harvest grapes, so much so that he promoted the entire Cascina Francia production to Monfortino. For years he had doubts in the operation, but barrel evolution over time convinced him in this direction.

Rich right from the color. The nose is strongly layered and balsamic, as is not uncommon to hear on this wine, but not at this level. Not huge, in fact, it is strongly connoted by balances bordering on perfection. It varies a bit in intensity, not as sharp as the 2004 and 2006 monsters, but far from depressed. Great note of geranium and coffee arabica, clearly on a background of the usual red fruits. Mouth majestic, still grinding, never surrendering. It won’t last a hundred years, but it’s close.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2001

Score: 95+/100
Approximate price: € 1.800,00

Solemn in its demeanor, right down to its bright red color, intact two dozen years after harvest… yet it seems to be blossoming only today with its own characteristics. The nose is of impressive complexity, in the glass evolving continuously without pause for hours. The almost unique mineral notes, the multilayered structure that allows each snasata a new sensation, from cardamom to ginger, from rhubarb to currant, from the usual (and here Roberto Conterno will sue me or take away the word…) stupendously characterizing watermelon note. The mouthfeel is vivid and lively, stimulating, untamable. A Monfortino of great breed and authority.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 2000

Score: 93/100
Approximate price: € 1.500,00

Some will twist their mouths, but this is yet another great Monfortino. Clear, without the boldness of other vintages; the warm vintage, however, gives it relaxation and universal interpretive ability.

The color is relatively clear. The aromas are fruity, almost round, easy to take. The mouthfeel is silky, stimulates the palate making itself almost indispensable, a kind of addiction. The glass empties in an amen. It does not have that usual darting acidity nor the abrasive tannic set-up to which it accustomed us when young. This vintage will not live the “usual” hundred years but it is a marvel of drinkability and has an intelligibility perhaps unique compared to all the vintages of the first decade of the century.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1999

Score: 96+/100
Approximate price: € 1.600,00

Monumental and almost overlapping with 2001, but with even greater structure and perspective.

Extraordinary bright and transparent color, albeit with the first garnet notes on the nail. On the nose, an unspeakable dirge of persuasive sensations introduces us-with the old millennium-into a new organoleptic dimension. The variegated aromatic ensemble moves on a more solemn and articulate score, made of elevated semitones and an almost triumphant march with oxygenation, with a fascinating balsamicity accompanied by bay leaves and mint, of Leroy-style incense. The mouth is engaging, rich, still not perfectly polished but certainly rounded, stimulating and caressing. Impressive is the endless persistence.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1998

Score: 92+/100
Approximate price: € 1.600,00

A “ready-to-go” Monfortino … falls in love with its non-prevailing stage presence, that somewhat retro color that anticipates ready but certainly not waning sensations. The nose is of undergrowth, frassche, dewy humus, lichen, with first noble fungal signals. The mouthfeel almost thin compared to its siblings, the sensation is one of extreme drinkability and refreshment after swallowing. Never straining to surprise you, it is a classic Monfortino and ready to be enjoyed.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1997

Score: 94/100
Approximate price: € 1.700,00

Despite the mixed reviews given to the vintage by critics, at first glowing, then very disappointing, the Monfortino ’97 is a delight.

The color immediately leaves one a bit puzzled by the distinct garnet notes. In reality it is only appearance, the wine has integral characteristics and great impact. Already from the very original aromas of black cherry jam, blackberry, pomegranate. The very light watermelon note is revealed only after abundant oxygenation. Continues with mowing grass, even floral when chamomile appears, as well as the first citrusy signs. Wine to drink in buckets….

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1996

Score: 99/100
Approximate price: € 2.000,00

One of the greatest Monfortino and, at the same time, least understood. On its release it left many surprised by its hardness and reluctance to concede, despite having an extremely powerful structure. Not everyone understood its enormous potential. Today it is a solemn wine.

It is virtually untouched in appearance, relatively clear and bright red, transparent. It is powerful from the nose, memorable for solidity and rigor. Blessed with a memorable vintage in the Langa, it stretches seraphic on almost emaciated, ferrous, macerated rose, holly notes. Entering the mouth it still has a terrifically effective, scratchy, mindlessly captivating tannic texture. Dangerous by fatal attraction, it remains perhaps one of the greatest versions ever.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1995

Score: 96/100
Approximate price: € 1.700,00

Iridescent for unreserved beauty. Color with the first orange nuances, but it is only a coquettish habit that will accompany it from now on in all vintages, even the oldest, pardon, mature. The nose of a sunny, delightful loveliness; suffused iodine and balsamic sensations, incense and spices chase each other. Sumptuous finish with Haut Brion-style pipe tobacco. It is the mouth, which almost puts everyone in awe with its strutting, rigorous and austere gait. The finish, as usual, of unusual length.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1993

Score: 94/100
Average price: € 1.300

Relatively “consistent” vintage for Monfortino, but showing, even in unexceptional vintages, how much this wine can reflect aspects of finesse and longevity.

Light red with orange nuances. Aromas are distilled dried rose petals, bark, underbrush loam, very light citrus. The palate is seemingly slender, with fine, resolved tannins, but freshness still supports a silky structure with good persistence.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1990

Score: 98+/100
Average price: € 2.000

Significant garnet red color of excellent intensity, intact. On the nose an explosion of dried and macerated roses, field violets, black cherry jam, with delicious puff of watermelon in mustard. Balsamic notes fill the nostrils with remarkable verticality. The mouthfeel is silky, broad, structured, with dense tannins on the way to resolution, energetic and alive, with long and satisfying persistence.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1988

Score: 91+/100
Approximate price: € 1.600,00

Drunk several times in recent years, it gave mixed feedback. Some of the doubts centered on the tightness of the cork, in some cases very undermined in consistency, to which corresponded a problematic matching of the wine. Even when there were no doubts, however, it never gave the feeling of a historical version of our wine phenomenon, despite the critically celebrated vintage.

Light red in color tending toward orange, the nose always variegated with underbrush, humus, almost fungal, if noble. The fruity base now almost completely resolved, as is the mouth, albeit silky, but with papillary grip not at the top as usual.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1987

Score: 96/100
Approximate price: € 1.800,00

This, on the other hand, despite a vintage considered little more than “classic” (the equivalent for a woman who does not shine for loveliness, labeled “nice”), is an extraordinary wine, among other things a favorite of poor Giovanni Conterno (Roberto’s father and dearest personal friend).

Integral, jaw-dropping in suave delicacy and balance, thrown on root, sweet tobacco, licorice stick, with a dreamy background pansy. Reappears the citrus I love so much, the mushroom hen in the background. The mouth terribly effective for darting acidity, unparalleled silkiness, impressive persuasiveness. Hard to resist, almost at the height of its goodness 25 years after vintage.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1978

Score: 99/100
Approximate price: € 3.000,00

Phenomenal. Again, maturity managed to give it connotation and nuance that youth denied it. This 1978 is pure sensory poetry.

The color remains bright if increasingly muted. The aromas are heady, where the prevalence now is ethereal and balsamic notes. This is not to say that tertiarization has depressed its eno-homicidal instinct to hyperstimulate the taste buds, on the contrary: articulation is now at the highest level, very difficult to follow in the stupendous mobility in the glass, in the undulating multimedia of sensations. The mouth has become a silk drape, caressing where before it almost raped. Wine of a still surprising energy, just as surprising is its infinite closure.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1974

Score: 94+/100
Approximate price: € 1.800,00

Extraordinary also this vintage of Monfortino played on chiaroscuro.

The color is identical to 1978, never seeming to yield except for a lower aromatic intensity. The olfactory picture is again characterized by underbrush, dew on the deciduous leaves, and newly hatched porcini. One glimpses the usual spearmint and some spicy notes, a real tableau d’artiste. Surprising and moving final return of bitter cocoa, Clan-like tobacco, rich balsamic undertones. Mouth always dominated by that acidity that makes it eternal, and which is summed up by very fine, silky tannins.

Barolo Riserva Speciale Monfortino 1971

Score: 97/100
Average price: € 1.600

Light red with still definite garnet notes and some orange reflections. It explodes on the nose with balsamic, almost incense-like sensations of eucalyptus in the pacing. Classic floral notes are only hinted at, leaving ample room for dewy underbrush, humus and roots, porcini and lichen. The entry on the palate is sumptuous, of pleasant, velvety caress, whose abundant but rounded tannins gave a feeling of softness combined with unchanged freshness.

Barolo Riserva Speciale Monfortino 1970

Score: 99/100
Average price: € 1.500

The color is deep garnet red, full-bodied as far as it appears, with only very slight orange notes. The chromatic integrity is surprising. The nose is very articulated and of excellent verticality, surprising for its citrus, macerated rosehip and wild bramble notes, with hints of spearmint and sweet licorice. The mouth, velvety and soft, remains of great structural impact, still showing lively freshness on an important glyceric scaffold. Very long persistence.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1967

Score: 99/100
Auction wine.

We are at the peak, the full maturity of Monfortino. I love this vintage that is turning out, over the years, to be among the greatest. This is a true, little masterpiece.

Even more intact color than the previous two younger vintages, with a nose that is pyrotechnic in its variety of sensations. Reminiscent of the facet and intensity of a Pinot Noir, with great florality and a sensational, sharp top note, as if it were a great tenor. The mouth is epic, to be remembered in years to come….

Monfortino Riserva 1964 wine

Score: 99/100
Auction wine.

Historic vintage, historic Monfortino.

The color still has a classic light “Barolo” red with flirtatious orange declines, but without subsidence, still lively, transparent and sustained. The aromas are as varied as ever, of jammy berries but, above all ultra-spicy, of those delicious roasting spices, such as juniper and cloves, accompanied by a now indispensable sweet licorice. This is followed seamlessly by notes of eucalyptus and conifer needles. As usual, the mouth is a most precious fabric that caresses the palate.

Monfortino Riserva Wine 1961

Score: 100/100
Auction wine.

I have to agree with director Daniele Cernilli, this is perhaps among the greatest Monfortino drunk and ever produced.

It is light garnet with bright, brilliant highlights, frightening in its resistance to the passage of time. Its tertiarization is not only textbook, but downright dreamy. The aromas are something almost esoteric, harking back to the East on the one hand, to cool autumn moors on the other. The mobility in the glass, again, prevents a descriptive flash; it is constantly evolving, never yielding an inch. In the mouth it is very fresh and savory, mineral and silky. Astonishing, a true organoleptic phenomenon that rivals the world’s greatest wines of long aging.

Monfortino Riserva Wine 1958

Score: 98/100
Auction wine.

Perhaps the vintage of Monfortino I drank the most in my life, as Grandpa filled his cellar because it was the vintage corresponding to my birth. Incidentally, I opened it for about nine consecutive birthdays in the 1990s. Even recently, however, a couple of bottles have been the corollary to extraordinary glassings, and always with a moving result.

Integral, it sums up all the characteristics of mature Monfortino with strength, vigor, elegance and complexity. It remains the leitmotif of diffuse balsamicity, of chocolate that bewitches and seduces, of noble mushroom notes. The mouth is now seemingly resolved because the drape is caressing, but it is a vigorous caress, made of well-established acid-tannic balance. A fabulous wine and in full qualitative summit.

Monfortino Riserva Wine 1952

Score: 97+/100
We are now at the antique auction.

Really unbelievable in this case as well.

Deep garnet in color, it shows a still pulsating matter. The nose communicates all its great vitality intoxicating you with the never shouted notes of white pepper, incense, mint, with a very slight bitterness of cinchona bark, rhubarb. The mouth is paradoxically unwilling to condescend; it is still austere, stimulating, energetic. Eternal finish.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1947

Score: 100/100
Wine by auction.

Light red, with definite orange hues. The aromas are of a fragrance and charm that have few equals: intense, variegated with balsamic persuasions, feline motions for how quietly they creep into the nose. Oriental spices, incense, orange jam. The citrus remains constant throughout the time it sits in the glass. The complexity in the glass, as well as its mobility, allows a succession of emotions that are difficult to narrate. What is surprising is the non-silent intensity.

The mouth is uncanny, sensual, still characterized by epic freshness, seemingly thin but alive and pulsating. The texture is very fine, without asperity, caressing. One is amazed and praises the joy of drinking. Finale worthy of a great play, with a pyrotechnic abandonment of the stage that seems to have no measurable time space. World-class sensory phenomenon.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1945

Score: 97/100
Wine by auction.

It is little more than cherry, pale red with definite orange nuances. From the color it looks like an old wine now at the end of its rope, but there are many surprises in store. The nose is delicate and floral, with impressive balsamic notes, as delicate as a dirge, but never dome, always alive. Oxygenation enriches it with leafy, porcine, bark notes. It develops over time into algid and fascinating cinchona and rhubarb. The mouth accomplished, silky, supported by pulsating acidity. The sensation of eternity is in the air, the evocative phase ever present, with so many decades on its back that only amplify the expression lines of a timeless age.

Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1943

Score: Emotionally it is from100/100, but even without the emotional contribution at least 96+/100.
Vino from auction.

Recently, it shocked all the friends present. A wine produced during World War II, thus extremely evocative. Drinking this phenomenon, one imagined the tensions of those who produced it while sounding probable alarms due to some bombing.

It is not only the integrity of the color, clearly a deep orange, that is surprising, as much as that of the descriptors, the formidable intensity, the still pulsing acidity, the emotion still conveyed through its stupendous projections to that future, now after more than eighty years, that makes us grasp it in this state of grace… of course, thirty years ago it would have been at its peak, but it still has so much to say…

Extra Barolo Monfortino 1941

Score: 97/100
Wine by auction.

Deep orange color, with still garnet highlights, with good intensity in the middle of the glass. The nose is tertiary but far from decrepit, in fact, in full evolution. The scents recall dry leaves, damp humus of underbrush. The mushroom notes are noble, of porcini and chanterelles, with beautiful notes of sweet tobacco, licorice, lichen. The silky, fresh mouthfeel invites the next sip without relenting and leaving a sweetly caressing memory.

Extra Barolo Monfortino 1937

Score: 98+/100 But emotionally 100/100 without wavering.
An auction relic. If well preserved, it is priceless; still at the same level as the world’s highest expressions, whether Bordeaux or Burgundy…

I quote the comment written years ago: “… Tears furrow the faces of those present on several occasions. They are tears of joy, of emotion, of amazement. A bottle awaits us that has seen World War II, the birth of most of the fathers of those present, then the economic boom, then our times. The time has come to delight us with the unique expression of such inspiration and heroic craftsmanship.

The color is cherry, but with the same intact hues. Rarely have I tasted such original sensations. Has a common thread with recent vintages, but everything has veered to the almost virginal whiteness of “never tasted.” Suffused, compressed, always faint mushroom notes, dried flowers, bergamot, licorice. It has the minerality of a great Chablis and still crisp acidity, the real secret of this apparent eternity. Suffused balance its real strength. Unspeakable the finish. Only regret that we didn’t drink it a few decades earlier, where it would have reached the top, but it’s close, very close…. “.

Extra Barolo Monfortino 1934

Score: 98/100
Wine by auction.

Surprising is the deep garnet color, with only a few orange reflections. So are the aromas impressive, exceptionally vertical and endowed with great articulation and charm, with notes of cocoa, green tea infusion, musk, garrigue. Balsamicity is diffuse but well present, a poetic background to the aromas as a whole. Citrus notes return as usual. The mouth is a silken drape, very fine, alive, of remarkable length with eucalyptus retronasus.

Extra Barolo Monfortino 1926

Score: Again the grade is an emotional 100/100, but no less than 97/100 actuals.
Price obviously from auction, the argument for the last vintages presented applies. I was offered over a thousand euros for a bottle of this vintage, clearly from my cellar, but I would not trade it even for a mature Aux Cros Parantoux from Jayer…

Here we are at the apotheosis of emotion. The color is relatively deep orange, apparently it could be a very dignified wine that has had its day… Big mistake, it is one of the very first vintages of Monfortino (fortunately I still have four bottles, but how many of this vintage have I already had. Of older ones, in the cellar, I have only the 1924). Among the absolute greatest in its history.

I would be too biased in describing it, so I am quoting the comment of my friend Augusto, a primary lecturer (and luminary) at Sacred Heart University in Rome: “My companions in today’s tasting must forgive me because while I fully agree with the assessment that the 1961 was the Monfortino that turned out to be the best today, in my mind comes back insistent, overbearing, invincible, no matter how hard I try to control it, the image of a wine it has an orange color brightened by luminous reflections, on the nose it is alive and communicates aromas of fallen autumn leaves and the smell of the earth on which they rest, there is also a sweet note of rose petals left to wilt, of black tea, of nougat, alternating with congealed blood and fungal notes.
In the mouth, it is enveloping, retaining an acidity that supports a body in which resolved tannins allow us to perceive an alternation of sweet and spicy notes that combined with noble tertiary elements give the wine a truly unique and unforgettable lightness, pleasantness and persistence. This wine, thanks in part to a cork that ensured its perfect closure and incomparable preservation, won its battle against oxidation and time. It will forever remain etched in my memory.”

Monfortino 1924

Score: 100/100 emotional
Price at auction, in mint condition, not less than € 5.000

First vintage, historic, of Monfortino. It is pure excitement just to open this heirloom, with relatively short but woody cork, almost unassailable even with a bladed corkscrew.

The excitement continues as it pours into the glass, presenting a deep orange color, very noble, almost strutting. The aromas are very particular: smoky, sweet pipe tobacco, strong spices such as juniper and clove, Boletaceae, dried flowers, with notes of bark and leather, stick licorice. The mouthfeel is almost intangible in finesse and lightness, but it leaves an indelible reminder of how this leviathan manages to progress, second only to celebrated Bordeaux vintages. But no less exciting.