What is everyones opinions on Aldo Conterno? I never hear their wines being mentioned in any of the Barolo threads. Are they worth the price? or are there better wines out there for the money?
I have seen some show up locally and they’re around $70 for the base Bussia Barolo and $130 for the crus’.
You seriously haven’t found any mentions of Conterno in Barolo discussion?
Using the search function…I found 1,470 mentions…http://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/search.php?keywords=conterno+barolo&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search
Wines are very good. Just outside the top tier.
Sorry, I should have made my original post more specific. When I searched Conterno, I mostly found hits for G. Conterno. I havent seen many mentions of Aldo Conterno from recent vintages, and when I have, there are really no specifics. I just wanted to start a discussion about what everyone thinks of Aldo Conterno wines from recent vintages, are many people buying? At this price point, it looks like (from reading other Barolo threads) a lot of people are looking at other producers like Rinaldi, Mascarello, etc. Is Aldo Conterno worth the price or are there better options? Are they considered top tier?
My last purchase of barolo was the aldo conterno blowout from k&l and whwc back in 2012. These were 2000 thru 2006 iirc. What a deal it was.
Not sure about recent vintages.
I would be interested as well.
See Gary York’s reply. I’ve enjoyed them quite a bit once they got thru their folly in the mid 1990’s. I do think they are a bit too expensive, but that’s what I think of most all of the top tier Barolo’s these days. If you can get them on special (or during the not too long ago big sell off)I think they are a value.
I wouldn’t quite put them at the top of the pile. The wines are, to me, a great synthesis of the old “tradition” vs “modern” debate. The 07s were beautiful wines, but I do feel like they command a premium I’m not quite comfortable with paying.
Huge fruit, big oak, drinks like a chocolate milkshake.
In other words, extremely modern.
Definitely a crowd-pleaser for the neophytes.
How well it will age, I have no idea, but the fruit is of such high quality that I would be loath to bet against it [despite all the oak].
Where are you seeing Granbussia for $130?
That looks like a price from 2004, not 2014.
The last time I checked, Granbussia was getting up around $350 to $400.
Todd - any time you would like to trade some Giacomo for some Aldo, I’m your man! ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
I have heard the same - the question for me is when did this change happen? I see the older stuff from Aldo on a somewhat regular basis and I’ve always wondered if you have to get to '89 and back for classically styled wines or if, say, 1996 would be before the style change.
My limited experience has been a bit different. Paid $85 for 2000 Granbussia in July, 2012 during the K&L blowout. Opened a bottle of this about a year ago and thought it was stunning. Not at all a chocolate milkshake experience for me. Wish now I had purchased multiple cases of this wine and the others that were offered instead of just the case and a half I now have in the cellar. Just bought a few more 2000’s last week for about $140 each. I hope the 2001’s that are sleeping in the cellar are even better.
There are some “chocolate milkshake” wines that I really hate, but I wouldn’t put 2000 Granbussia in that category at all. not even close. I haven’t had anything else, though, so I can’t comment on A. Conterno in general. If there were a vintage to be over the top in that respect, though, I would think 2000 would qualify.
If you can still find decent vintages of Granbussia for $140, then you should be backfilling hand over fist.
[u]Check out the 2006:[/u] $344.70, $350.00, $367.77, $804.69 Magnum, etc
Moving forward, the days of $100-ish “Grand Cru” nebbiolo have pretty much vanished forever.
As far as the “chocolate milkshake” goes, the fruit in the Granbussia is of such high quality that I wouldn’t bet against it [in terms of ultimately being able to absorb all that oak].
Maybe those chocolate milkshake Granbussias will fall apart, but I kinda doubt it.
Nathan’s take on these wines is idiosyncratic. they can be a little modern, but not offensively so since that later 90’s. the blowout cheap wines were a large quantity sold as a result of a major dispute between estate and distributor, I believe, and was a one time wonderful opportunity which is now gone. I’d be wary of mid 90’s wines, but I think 99 on is ok. that’s my own personal experience–someone with more experience may know better.
I’ve tasted a couple of recent vintages, and while I don’t think the wines are from the Bartolo Mascarello mold, they are recognizably Barolo without being clobbered by oak.
Did a recent large scale Nebbiolo tasting go that featured a lot of botti vs. barric comparisons. Some producers with the “modern” rep really carried the oak well. Others didn’t, but it was a lot more complicated than one might think.
Gotta respect old Aldo. Served in the US Army.
I wouldn’t characterize the wines since roughly 99 on as chocolate milkshakes at all. They are a bit on the fruit bomby side, and have noticeable, sweet, vanillin laden oak, but the wines are aged in Slavonian botte, refreshed every three uses, if memory serves me well. The vineyards are farmed organically and the wines undergo spontaneous fermentations.
The wines are very well made, impressively so, and while I am hesitant to say that they will age notably well, due to lack of a track record as opposed to doubts about the wines themselves, they are very seductively styled wines with broad appeal. The crus are stylistically quite different from the Granbussia, which used to be a wine blended after fermentation but today’s sees the crus cofermented, and left on the skins for 60 days.
While I would say that the most recent releases have a distinctly modern feel they do not show the overt modernism of the wines produced during 1995 through 1998 period, which are all over the place. My guesses that the wines will age well over the midterm to l ong term, twenty to thirty years, gaining more of a classical profile as the oak and overt fruitiness begin to fade. The quality of the wines have continued to improve over the course of the past decade as the family has reduced production significantly trying to reclaim the reputation for quality they had in the 1980s.
The wines may not be to everyone’s taste, but they are widely popular and serve as an attractive introduction to Barolo, though the prices seem to have moved ahead of the quality to my mind. The big dump last year was an outstanding opportunity and I’m sure those who partook in the offerings will be very pleased with their purchases.
Picked up a mixed case during the big sale, wish I had bought more. For a relatively new barolo drinker who doesn’t have a diehard preference for the old-style wines, I found them to be cherry fruit dominated with hints of the classic rose petals and strawberries flavor. I didn’t pick up as much oak as others, though it probably contributed to the softer fruit flavors. Early last year had a 2000 Granbussia that was drinking beautifully and a 2004 Romirasco that seemed a little closed down.
You can occasionally find them on sale (Zachy’s, other big retailers), which I wouldn’t hesitate on, not sure I’d pay $120+ for the crus $300 for the Granbussia, but that’s more due to my budgetary constraints.
As Vinod just mentioned, discounts on Aldo Conterno wines still appear but not on the scale of the big blowout. For example, K & L recently offered magnums of the 2005 Cicala for $110, and Woodland Hills had 750s of the 2006 Cicala for $53. At those prices, these wines are definite buys for me, as I think they show an appealing balance between nearer-term accessibility and classic flavors. I don’t have one-tenth of the experience with these wines as many others, but I’ve never thought fruit bomb or milkshake when tasting them. That said, I do not buy Aldo Conterno wines at their listed retail, which (to my mind) is absurdly high.