2019 Diego Conterno, Barolo "Ginestra"

Lovers of Nebbiolo, or world class red wine writ large, take note: Monforte d’Alba is one of the key villages in the Barolo DOCG zone, and in addition to being home to a lot of people named Conterno, Monforte’s vineyard landscape also includes one of the purest southern exposures in the entire Barolo appellation: the “Ginestra” vineyard. This site is one of Barolo’s undisputed Grand Crus, with an all-star roster of legendary producers (again, many named “Conterno”) farming pieces of it. It is in every way the Barolo big leagues. In this rarefied landscape Diego Conterno’s eponymous label is relatively new, but he’s hardly a rookie: he literally grew up in the Ginestra cru, and the parcel he now farms and features in a vineyard-designate bottling is within the subsection called “Sorì Ginestra,” which boasts the most perfect southern exposure of all. Bottom line? This is blue chip Barolo for an extremely modest price. Diego, along with his cousin, Claudio, was part of the team that estab