Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino Riserva 2013

A tavern, a riserva and a name from a village

The Conterno wine business began in 1908, when Giovanni Conterno opened an osteria, a tavern, in the village of San Giuseppe near Monforte d'Alba and made wine from grapes he bought from local growers. Whatever the tavern did not pour was sold in barrel, the custom across the region at the time. His son Giacomo, who had been born in Argentina where the family still had relatives, came home from World War I and the business grew.

At some point in the 1920s father and son decided to set aside their best wine and bottle it as a riserva meant for long aging. At the time Barolo was mostly sold by the cask or in demijohns and drunk young; a producer-named bottle built to last decades was unusual. They called it Monfortino, after Monforte d'Alba. Monfortino is not a vineyard. It is a name the family invented for its top wine.

Exactly when the first one was made is not settled, and the sources say so. One importer and one wine guide give 1912 or 1920. A published account quotes Giovanni and Aldo Conterno, Giacomo's sons, saying they could not recall the date of the first one. One collector who has catalogued the estate's labels believes the first Monfortino commercially bottled and labeled as such was the 1924, and the estate's importer calls 1924 the first confirmed vintage.

For decades the wine came from purchased grapes. One researcher, citing the Barolo cartographer Alessandro Masnaghetti, writes that the earliest Monfortino came from the Castle zone of what is now the Le Coste di Monforte vineyard area, and that back labels on 1952 and 1955 bottlings still say the grapes were selected and harvested in Monforte d'Alba.

Three generations of Conterno

Giovanni Conterno died in 1934, and Giacomo ran both the tavern and the winery. Giacomo's sons, Giovanni and Aldo, made the 1958 wines alongside their father; from the 1959 vintage Giovanni made the wines himself, and in 1961 the brothers formally took over. They disagreed about style. Aldo wanted to experiment, and in 1969 he left to found his own estate, Poderi Aldo Conterno. Giacomo died in 1971.

Giovanni kept to the old method: long maceration and long aging in large casks. As grape prices rose and growers began bottling their own wine, he decided the family needed its own land, and in 1974 he bought the whole Cascina Francia property in Serralunga d'Alba. Sources give its size as 14 hectares, while one encyclopedia entry gives 16. At the time of purchase it was not planted to vines, and it was replanted in 1974. No Conterno Barolo was made in 1975, 1976 or 1977. The 1978 was the first vintage made entirely from Francia, and since then the estate has not bought grapes.

Giovanni's youngest son, Roberto, born in 1968, joined him in 1988. Giovanni died on February 18, 2004, at 75, and Roberto has run the estate since. He bought a three-hectare parcel in the Cerretta vineyard in 2008 and part of the Arione vineyard, next to Francia, in 2015. Sources describe the Arione purchase differently: as nine hectares, as 22 acres, or as a six-hectare plot with about 3.5 hectares for Barolo. His importer describes him as a perfectionist who built experimental vineyards and a cork-screening system that codes each cork to trace its performance.

In 2018 Roberto's oldest son, Gabriele, graduated from the Politecnico di Torino with a degree in aerospace engineering and joined his father at the winery.

How Monfortino is made, and why 2013 is different

Grapes for Monfortino are earmarked in the vineyard, because the key difference is in the cellar: the Monfortino lot ferments with no temperature control and macerates longer, up to about five weeks by one account, while the Francia Barolo is temperature controlled. The two wines are kept apart for years, and only then does the family decide whether the Monfortino is distinct enough to bottle on its own or should be blended back into Francia. Monfortino is generally bottled about seven years after the harvest.

In a typical year, one researcher calculates, the five hectares of Nebbiolo at Francia yield about 150 hectoliters, and roughly 600 cases of Monfortino and 1,500 cases of Francia are made. A few years break the pattern. In 2002 yields were halved and everything went into Monfortino. In 2010 two of the three casks went to Monfortino. And in 2013, with normal yields, all of the Francia production went into Monfortino, so there is no 2013 Barolo Francia at all.

That is why 2013 is so much larger than usual. Monica Larner of the Wine Advocate reported some 20,000 bottles, 2,500 magnums and 400 three-liter bottles. A merchant who visited the winery in 2016 was told 27,000 bottles would be made, against a normal 7,000. The figures differ, and the bottled count reported by the critic is the later one.

Monfortino was not made in 2011 or 2012, so the 2013 follows the 2010, which earned a perfect score. Larner wrote that the two are strikingly similar but that the 2013 sits at a slightly lower structural threshold, with tannins a touch looser and the wine more succulent and earthy. She wrote that it had been bottled in June of the previous year and would reach the market in October; one label archive records the release in fall 2019.

A classic Piedmont year

The 2013 growing season in Barolo began with a wet spring, followed by a warm summer whose temperatures stayed steady and never scorching, which let the grapes ripen gradually. Large swings between day and night temperatures late in the season built aromatics and pushed the harvest later. One importer's report notes that many compared the vintage with 2010, with lower alcohol and more elegance, and quotes Antonio Galloni: 'the 2013s are Barolos that speak to finesse above all else.' The same report quotes James Suckling calling it possibly Barolo's best vintage since 2008.

Galloni's note on the Monfortino itself calls it 'a huge, towering wine' with 'a backbone of firm, classically austere tannins,' adding that next to the 2014 and 2015 'the sheer tannic clout of the 2013 is impossible to miss.' Suckling scored it 99 and wrote: 'A great Monfortino. Try in 2023.' Wine Spectator also gave it 99. The Wine Advocate gave 98, and one merchant reports its drinking window as 2025 to 2055. Decanter scored it 97, calling it 'perfectly balanced' and noting that Monfortino 'suffers more in the warm vintages than the fresher ones.'

Sources disagree on the Vinous score. Two retail listings show 99, while a merchant's 2024 article says the 2013, like the 2002, received 98 from both the Wine Advocate and Vinous. Both figures are left as reported.

Identifying the bottle

The label reads Barolo Riserva Monfortino, Giacomo Conterno, Monforte d'Alba. The Francia vineyard name has never appeared on a Monfortino label, even though every Monfortino from 1978 to 2014 came only from that vineyard. The 2015 was the first to include Arione fruit, so the 2013 is one of the last single-vineyard Monfortinos by origin.

The 2013 was released in 750 ml bottles packed in a three-bottle wooden case, and in magnums and three-liter bottles. Do not confuse it with Poderi Aldo Conterno, Aldo's separate estate, or with the Barolo Francia, which was not made in 2013.

Prices for the 2013 have moved in a narrow band. A merchant offered it in October 2024 at 850 euros a bottle in full cases, excluding duties and taxes, and wrote that a January 2024 allocation of 33 bottles sold out at once. In 2026 a three-bottle wooden case was listed at $3,499.99 by a California retailer, a single bottle was offered in New York at $1,225, and a 750 ml bottle sold at an online auction in the United States for $1,225 on August 23, 2026.

The numbers

Francia vineyard

14 ha per most sources (16 ha per one); about 5 ha of Nebbiolo; 350 to 440 m altitude

2013 production

About 20,000 bottles, 2,500 magnums and 400 three-liter bottles (Wine Advocate); 27,000 bottles projected in 2016

Typical Monfortino output

About 600 cases (some sources: under 600, or about 580)

James Suckling

99

Wine Spectator

99

Wine Advocate (Monica Larner)

98

Vinous (Antonio Galloni)

99 per retail listings; 98 per one merchant's article

Decanter

97

Jancis Robinson

18/20, as listed by an auction site

Timeline

1. 1908

   Giovanni Conterno opens a tavern in San Giuseppe, near Monforte d'Alba, and makes wine from purchased grapes.

2. 1912

   Earliest date some sources give for the first Monfortino; others say 1920, and the first confirmed vintage is 1924.

3. 1924

   First vintage the estate's importer calls confirmed, and the first one collector believes was bottled and labeled as Monfortino.

4. 1934

   Giovanni Conterno dies; his son Giacomo runs the tavern and the winery.

5. 1959

   Giacomo's son Giovanni begins making the wines himself.

6. 1961

   Giovanni and Aldo Conterno formally take over from their father.

7. 1969

   Aldo leaves to found Poderi Aldo Conterno.

8. 1974

   Giovanni buys the Cascina Francia property in Serralunga d'Alba and replants it.

9. 1978

   First vintage made entirely from Francia grapes, including a Monfortino.

10. 1988

    Roberto Conterno joins his father at the winery.

11. Feb 18, 2004

    Giovanni Conterno dies at 75; Roberto takes charge.

12. 2008

    Roberto buys a three-hectare parcel in Cerretta.

13. 2013

    All of Francia's crop goes to Monfortino; no Barolo Francia is made.

14. 2015

    Roberto buys part of the Arione vineyard next to Francia; the 2015 Monfortino is the first to include Arione fruit.

15. 2016

    A visiting merchant is told 27,000 bottles of 2013 Monfortino will be produced, against a normal 7,000.

16. 2019

    The 2013 Monfortino is released in the fall.

17. Oct 10, 2024

    A merchant offers the 2013 at 850 euros a bottle, noting an earlier allocation sold out at once.

18. Aug 23, 2026

    A 750 ml bottle sells at an online auction in the United States for $1,225.

The world in 2013

• Feb 15, 2013

  A meteor explodes over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring about 1,500 people.

• Feb 28, 2013

  Benedict XVI resigns, the first pope to do so since 1415.

• Mar 13, 2013

  Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina is elected pope and takes the name Francis.

• Apr 15, 2013

  Two bombs explode at the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and injuring 264.

• Jun 6, 2013

  Edward Snowden's disclosures of US mass surveillance programs begin to appear.

• Jul 1, 2013

  Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.

• Nov 8, 2013

  Typhoon Haiyan strikes the Philippines, leaving at least 6,241 dead.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this wine every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

Every grade and recorded sale for this wine

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino Riserva 2013 is number 45 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (34 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Monfortino is not a vineyard. The name comes from the village of Monforte d'Alba, where the earliest grapes were grown.
• The family that makes the most famous traditional Barolo owned no vineyards at all until 1974.
• Roberto Conterno was six when his father bought Francia, and remembers playing in a field that had been planted with wheat.
• One merchant counts that Monfortino was released in only 46.5% of possible vintages since 1920.
• Roberto Conterno's oldest son joined the winery in 2018 with a degree in aerospace engineering.
• In 1983 the Francia vineyard sold grapes once to Mauro Mascarello, who made a 1983 Barolo La Francia; one researcher knows of no other time it happened.
• Monfortino was made in vintages with poor reputations, such as 1968, 1987 and 2002, but not in the celebrated 1989, which Giovanni Conterno said lacked the balance the wine needs.