Giacomo Conterno is probably the Langhe’s, and indeed Piemonte’s, most acclaimed winery, producing truly outstanding Barolo. Its hallmark is that the wines are ageable and improve for decades. While the winery is physically in Monforte d’Alba, the vineyards are in Serralunga d’Alba. On the division of the family company in 1969, the current generation’s father, Giovanni, took the brand name and Cascina Francia (now Francia MGA) to which his son, Roberto, has added vineyards in Cerretta (2008) and Arione (adjacent to Francia, 2015). These are all in Serralunga d’Alba.

In the current situation in Barolo, Roberto Conterno is unusual in that he was, in effect, trained in the family winery. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not go to oenological school, nor has he ever worked abroad. In fact has never worked anywhere except at the winery which bears his grandfather’s name. His father’s other children chose not to work in the family business. In contrast, he began working with his father at the age of 16 while he was still studying. Giovanni died in 2004, at which point Roberto took over the direction of the company, where he has been ever since. While he was not subjected to any external influences, he has respect for the great names of Barolo of the past. He also speaks positively about the Barolo Boys (modernisers), despite the totally different style of their wines, as they brought visibility to the Langhe and its wines.

Roberto is famous for his obsessive attention to detail. He summarises his approach: change in the vineyard and the cellar is normal, but the heart of the matter is to present the territory in the glass. However, while that is simple to say, to achieve it takes enormous amounts of study.

“We want to go forward, and that means making many small changes and adjustments.”

This is as far as possible from the traditionalist label sometimes bestowed – entirely wrongly – on this winery. Indeed, Roberto Conterno has a deep fascination with all things mechanical, and his eldest son, Giovanni, who has worked with him since 2018, previously studied aeronautical engineering. During the Covid lockdown, Roberto designed and put into production a robotic tractor. His bottling machines are the last word in advanced technology, with custom-made parts which enable him to bottle magnums and large format bottles. He is also meticulous about avoiding unwanted exposure to oxygen throughout the production process. For example, at bottling, the headspace is evacuated twice and filled with nitrogen. If this is not done perfectly, the machine will reject the bottle. No measure to protect quality is deemed to be too demanding. Exactly the same approach is used in his other recent project, the Nervi Conterno winery in Gattinara. 

The same attention to detail is to be seen in the vineyard and in the selection of fruit for the various bottlings. The greatest volume of wine comes from the 15.8-hectare Francia vineyard, a monopole and, since 2010, a Barolo MGA in its own right. This was bought by Giovanni Conterno, Roberto’s father, in 1974 and was replanted then, meaning that most of the vines are now a good age. The vineyard used to have some Dolcetto and some Freisa vines in it, as was common in the past, but these were removed in order to concentrate on what Roberto regards as the Langhe’s two great varieties, Nebbiolo and Barbera. The subsoil here is Lequio Formation, the elevation is between 340 and 440 metres with Nebbiolo mostly at the mid to higher part of the slope. The main slope faces west, making for a late harvest period, if not as late as in MGA Cerretta.

In 2015, the adjacent Arione was acquired, with similar soils and elevation. However, it faces south and is a heat bowl. It should be noted that Renato Ratti identified this vineyard, not Francia, as a ‘historic subregion’ in 1971 and 1985, though the weather was cooler then. Finally, in 2008, three hectares were bought in MGA Cerretta. 

The approach to disease and pest control is conventional. Roberto calls the current situation in the vineyard a war, with the enemy changing every few years, requiring constant attention and prompt action. Like many growers in the Langhe, he is concerned about the Noctua caterpillars that can eat all the buds in spring, especially if there is no really cold spell in the preceding winter. Vine yellows are a problem, but the impact is much worse on Barbera than on Nebbiolo. 

When it comes to the wines themselves, when the harvest is carried out, only perfect grapes and bunches are allowed to enter the winery. Sorting is done manually, as optical sorting of Nebbiolo is regarded as a disaster as it can break some of the berries. All the fruit is destemmed. Fermentation takes place with a strain of yeast selected by Roberto, having done multiple trials. All the wines are fermented in neutral oak casks, with maceration on the skins for Nebbiolo lasting around three weeks, perhaps a few days longer for the best casks. Rack and return is carried out twice a day, with some punch downs at the end of fermentation, to handle the cap and carry out the desired extraction. There is then one racking to take the wine off the gross lees, another after malolactic fermentation is completed and one further one as required on tasting the wine. 

In most years, three single vineyard wines are made, but this is not a rule. When some Francia and Arione casks show outstanding fruit quality, they may be chosen for the top wine, Barolo Riserva Monfortino. (In the now long distant past, this wine was made, as its name suggests, from Monforte fruit, but today, it is simply the name of the best wine in any year from Francia and Arione.) Whether Monfortino is made in any year, like everything else here, is simply down to Roberto’s judgement, ‘my personal taste’ as he says. Thus, no Monfortino was made from the outstanding 2016 vintage, as Roberto did not believe any casks stood out; in fact, he preferred the 2015. Conversely, no Francia or Arione was bottled separately as single vineyard wines in 2019; rather, all the fruit went into a bumper-size production of Monfortino. Similarly, the proportion of Arione fruit in the blend varies each year, now typically between 20–30 per cent. 

The single vineyard wines, Francia, Arione and Cerretta, are aged for three years in large casks (40 hectolitres), mostly Stockinger, but what really matters to Roberto is the neutrality of the wood. While the tradition here has been and continues to be for the wine to be aged in large oak casks for a long period, recent years have seen a reduction from four to three years in favour of longer ageing in the bottle to retain freshness. Similarly, the ageing of Monfortino in oak has reduced from seven to five years, again with longer maturation in bottle. 

Roberto Conterno is the living embodiment of the truth that making great wine requires the producer to make countless individual judgements (in his case, often underpinned by research) in the vineyard and the cellar.