Barolo Colonello, Poderi Aldo Conterno 2020

Bright garnet color and deep, intense nose of watermelon, mint, fresh violets and stony minerality. The palate is full of sucrosity with a full body, lifted acidity and firm velvety tannins of rare grace for a wine with this power. Perfectly integrate oak and a stern finish as expected from a Barolo made for the long haul.

This is a more strict and controlled wine than the classico, with earth, spice and bark notes underpinning the delicate rose petal and raspberry leaf perfume. The texture is haunting and silky at first, and then it inverts, and you sense the elemental raspiness of the skins. There is light and shade, silkiness and emery board tension, and the fruit is gloriously restrained but extraordinarily persistent. It is densely flavoured but not heavy and seemingly held together with light and not heat! This is a textbook reflection of this remarkable plot of land (on sand and magnesium soils), and it is designed for ‘expert’ palates and those obsessed with this estate. It is a wine of contrasts, equal and opposite, and as the drama unfolds, the fascination grows.