Diego Conterno

In 2000, Diego Conterno sold his share of Conterno-Fantino and started afresh, maintaining a prime plot in Ginestra among other vineyards. Having graduated from Umberto 1 Enological School and worked under the luminary Beppe Colla at Prunotto, Diego was confident he could make a go of things alone and produced his first vintage under his eponymous label in 2003, bottling 1300 bottles of Barolo Ginestra, and by 2005 was bottling the entirety of the estate’s fruit. In 2010, having previously trained and worked as a surveyor, Diego’s son, Stefano, joined him in the vineyard and cellar. Today, the family tend 7.5 hectares, 2 hectares in Ginestra planted in 1982 and the remaining 5.5 hectares split between Nebbiolo (San Pietro, Pajana & Gris) for Barolo, Nebbiolo d’Alba, Barbera, Dolcetto and Nascetta. Since 2018, the family has also rented a small parcel in Le Coste di Monforte—a southeast-facing site neighbouring Lalu and Sandrone. After adding an additional wing in 2014, ongoing construction work at the winery will help accommodate expanding production requirements, including large botte and cement tanks.

The wines are fermented with indigenous yeast in neutral, cement tanks and aged in traditional large oak casks. These are classic wines: strikingly restrained, delicate and precise with unfurling perfumes and ripe, resolved tannins. Painstaking vineyard work yields quality fruit, which makes for robust, expansive, and fruity wines. The unsuspecting Nascetta is outstanding quality too (keenly priced as well). These are great wines which come highly recommended for readers to try for themselves.