2020 Conteisa Langhe

This is a really enticing wine with an open and vivid nature that tells you right away it is Barolo, but it’s polished and sweetly tannic. You want to taste and taste. It’s medium- to full-bodied with rounded tannins and a savory finish. Juicy and so approachable now. Better in a couple of years, but hard to resist now. Try after 2026. (08/2024)

The Serralunga power comes through in the 2020 Barolo Conteisa. Boasting a jeweled, shimmering ruby color, it’s ripe and expressive with pristine notes of strawberry preserve, balsamic herbs, candied flowers, and sweet tobacco. It offers a lot of ripe sapidity on the palate, with a resinous quality, a touch of warmth, a rounded feel, and great length. It’s fairly approachable now, but it’s going to have the structure to last over the long haul, 20 years or so. (05/2024)

This spicy, cherry-scented red offers a lacy texture and elegant profile, with cherry, strawberry, eucalyptus, anise, iron and wild herb flavors driven by bracing acidity. Balanced overall, extending on the resonant finish. Best from 2027 through 2048. 250 cases imported.

- B.S.

The Gaja 2020 Barolo Conteisa offers subdued and unexpected elegance with great finesse and detailing. You might expect more concentration and power from this hot vintage; however, it instead reveals complexity over a lower overall intensity threshold. "The 2020 vintage offers a classic Nebbiolo profile," says Giovanni Gaja. He compares 2020 to upcoming vintages, describing 2021 as a vintage of power and 2022 as a vintage of concentration. The Conteisa with fruit from the Cerequio MGA shows a dark ruby hue with vibrant notes of wild cherry, crushed mint, dusty limestone and pressed violets. The tannins are especially elegant and fine.

- Monica Larner (01/2025)