2021 Conterno Fantino Sori Ginestra Barolo

Conterno Fantino was founded in 1982 when Guido Fantino — who'd trained under Beppe Colla at Prunotto — married Alda Conterno and teamed with her brother Claudio to bottle the family's first Barolo. Alda's father Lorenzo had farmed vineyards in Ginestra for decades, selling fruit to Prunotto and Rocche dei Manzoni; 1982 was the year the family brought the wine in-house. Today the estate tends four Barolo crus, two of them in Ginestra — the hillside home to the house and some of the most powerful Nebbiolo in Monforte d'Alba.

Sori Ginestra is the estate's anchor: a full-south-facing parcel on sandy soils north of Monforte, farmed by the Conterno family for more than 150 years. The wine that comes from it has immense power and structure — the kind of Barolo that defines the appellation.

2021 gave Barolo a warm but not punishing growing season. The vintage produced wines that are accessible, elegant, beautifully balanced — more approachable than the 2019, with flesh and fruit concentration that softens Nebbiolo's austere tannin backbone without losing its spine. The best examples — this one among them — show great aromatic lift and the poise to age two decades or drink well in five.

The fruit is hand-harvested, destemmed, and fermented on indigenous yeasts in temperature-controlled steel. Maceration runs eight to fifteen days; the wine then ages for twenty-four months in French oak barrels and another twelve in bottle before release.

The result is a Barolo that marries finesse with power: crushed flowers, orange peel, white pepper, mint and tobacco on the nose; cherry, plum, iron, tar and spice on the palate; vivid acidity and energetic tannins holding it all together.

The oak is generous and well-integrated, the structure firm, the finish long. It starts easy, then explodes through the mid-palate — the kind of wine that rewards patience and improves every year you leave it alone.