The 2005 vintage in Barolo is not considered great by any stretch of the imagination, but when tasting some 30 wines of this vintage last May, I was surprised by how good most of them still were. While the default description of 2005 is ‘a washed-out vintage’, I always remember that Robert Conterno of the Giacomo Conterno estate considered 2005 to be a great vintage, contrary to popular belief. His 2005 Monfortino, a Riserva wine designated for very long ageing and produced only in exceptional vintages, proves he wasn’t bluffing.
Conterno’s success was mostly due to the fact that...