2022 Poderi Aldo Conterno, Il Favot, Langhe Nebbiolo DOC, Piemonte, Italy.
One of the Sommelier choices for high end “Baby” Barolo, is the Aldo Conterno Il Favot Langhe Nebbiolo, and for reason this wine has a cult like following with enthusiasts, it offers real Barolo character and substance, but in a more easy to drink young wine that is impeccable, terroir driven and delicious, as it was again in this 2022 version. Even though 2022 was a bit of a ripe year, this wine speaks in more umami than fruit with brandied cherries, damson plum, earthy red currant and blood orange leading the way on the grippy, but fine grained tannins never feel aggressive and there’s a background of tarry licorice, cedar, porcini, crushed rose petals and hints of balsamic strawberries and menthol. This wine, coming from young vines, typically around 15 years old, sees carefully selections of clusters and is fermented in cool stainless steel with just about a week of maceration and then aged 18 months in, somewhat remarkably, 100% new wood, which somehow doesn’t overtake the purity of place. My first experience with Il Favot was the 2006 vintage and that wine really stood out, and I always keep my eyes open for them on wine lists, and I highly recommend you do the same.
The historic Aldo Conterno winery is located in Monforte d’Alba, in the famous Bussia Barolo vineyard and Conterno is widely acclaimed and is one of the greatest among Piemonte’s foremost producers, which extends into modern times. It is well known, that Aldo Conterno was the youngest son of Giacomo Conterno from Monforte, who at the end of the 1960s wanted to set up his own business, so he managed to buy the Il Favot country house and founded Poderi Aldo Conterno. Raising the bar for Barolo over the next few decades, and today, his sons Franco, Stefano (winemaker) and Giacomo run the family business, continuing to put out some of Italy’s finest wines. The Conterno family is intertwined with Bussia, one of the most famous of all the Barolo vineyards, and their Gran Bussia is widely acknowledged as one of the finest interpretations of Barolo. It was originally created in 1970 from a selection of the estate’s best grapes, and then after the legend was born, with Conterno only releasing it in the best of years, making it even more desirable. This Il Favot, or Favor, is an affordable gateway to the more exclusive bottlings here at Conterno, picked from the Barolo zone hillsides, which have the classic calcareous marl (limestone) soils and compacted grey and brown sand topping, making for a serious, but excellent early drinking effort, as displayed nicely here.
($49 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive